I feel exactly the same way. Feeling like the work I'm doing is at least somewhat important and/or useful is very important to me, and it's EXTREMELY difficult

I feel exactly the same way. Feeling like the work I'm doing is at least somewhat important and/or useful is very important to me, and it's EXTREMELY difficult to find jobs in tech that aren't "make work" and just redoing something that's already been done, but in a slightly different way to try and trick some investors into giving you money for it. It's either that, crypto scams, or fintech. It's gotten so bad in the past few years that I'm seriously considering a career change. I got into software development because it let me flex my creative muscles while also making money in a secure job. But at this point, the day-to-day is so painful for me that taking a serious pay cut might be worth it for my own sanity. After being in the field for around ten years, it gets pretty obvious where everything is headed and I just don't have the energy for it. I'm so tired of arguing about frameworks, build systems, how to plan and manage work, interpersonal relationships with people who are just entirely full of themselves and think they're doing the Lord's work by writing business-to-business software.