Oh sure, but like all human traits it occurs along a spectrum, and fulfilling that need gets balanced against others - a tech salary solveth a multitude of prob

Oh sure, but like all human traits it occurs along a spectrum, and fulfilling that need gets balanced against others - a tech salary solveth a multitude of problems after all. And I imagine for many getting started in tech seems like a great idea, learn a bunch and put aside a nest egg, and find out about the golden handcuffs later. My point being that the sort of intrinsic motivation you are describing gets sort of overwhelmed by huge benefits packages and total comp.