I've always worked on teams where managers try to allow folks to play to their strengths, but ultimately folks can't entirely focus on just doing what they like

I've always worked on teams where managers try to allow folks to play to their strengths, but ultimately folks can't entirely focus on just doing what they like to do. Otherwise you end up with unfair division of effort or some important things no one wants to do not getting done. Diversity of experience also allows you to better understand things which may make you more efficient overall. For instance, being forced to do some performance work will help you make better tradeoffs when doing design later. I think the most important things are to voice your preferences to your management and try to pick projects that are in a stage of their lifecycle that have needs for your strengths. If you prefer creative work, find a project early in its lifecycle with less baggage to way you down. If you love hardcore debugging, find something which is growing aggressively. If you like maintenance, find a mature product to help steward.