I've been a software engineer for 20 years, and worked at startups and large corporations. The one place I worked that lets me relate to this story was a stint

I've been a software engineer for 20 years, and worked at startups and large corporations. The one place I worked that lets me relate to this story was a stint at PwC. It's wild to me that this person believes that this experience is universal to other places. However, I do think there's a type of super corporate business where this is relatively common. PwC was one of those places for me. The people that were like this were described as 'lifers'. Frankly, I don't think there's anything wrong with doing just enough. It's not like these corporations are a net positive to the world. But, you're choosing money and comfort over intellectual fulfillment. That's fine. Most people aren't like you. Maybe it makes you feel better to think that everyone is like this, but this is just a bias based on your own experience.