I stand at the same point, and like others of my generation I'm considering switching job and moving to something completely different. But if I'm being honest

I stand at the same point, and like others of my generation I'm considering switching job and moving to something completely different. But if I'm being honest, I have to remind myself that the industry was not any better when I joined. Actually, I initially refused to work in that field for the same reasons that you list, except the epitome of dumb and user hostility at the time was Microsoft and Oracle. What made it possible for me to work in the industry was the raising tide of free software. Contributing to the success of it was interesting and fun and meaningful. Now this tide have receded. Open source has merged with the industry, it incorporated its culture and helps greatly with the dumbing down and the over production of junk software. I'm waiting for the next wave to come. I'm not sure where it will come from. My best guess at the moment as the most important, potentially disruptive technology, is functional OS distributions pioneered by NixOS and perfected by GuixSD, that has the potential of becoming the Debian of the future and revolution the way we assemble and distribute software and put an end to that unprincipled era of containers. Rust is also an interesting piece of tech that has the potential to promote correctness and optimization in a field obsessed with simplicity. So if one had to look for a job right now I would encourage either evangelization in one of those technologies maybe. That, or to work in a farm and enjoy computers on the side.