My hobby projects that I work on are in the area I'm hugely interested in and more research / PoC oriented or they scratch my own itch, i.e. I'm solving problem

My hobby projects that I work on are in the area I'm hugely interested in and more research / PoC oriented or they scratch my own itch, i.e. I'm solving problem I actually have. Second part which motivates me is realising that huge part of my competences as software engineer came from hobby projects when you do all stages of product development by yourself.