Absolutely. I feel there's a lot social pressure involved in accepting to dedicate half our waking time and most of our mental energy to jobs that in no way we'

Absolutely. I feel there's a lot social pressure involved in accepting to dedicate half our waking time and most of our mental energy to jobs that in no way we'd choose to do if it wasn't for the money. Not only are many (most?) of SWE jobs quite questionable in their value, but they are also very inefficient in my experience, at least in bigger organizations. So you're not only dealing with the dissatisfaction of doing something that's pretty meh (at best), but also with the boredom of being super inefficient and knowing you could do so much more with your time. Of course, we're all free to leave and do something else. But it's not easy to go against the current.