You don't have to be a great programmer to be that productive. I am not, but I've also been fortunate to have periods in my life where I just got to pour 70-90

You don't have to be a great programmer to be that productive. I am not, but I've also been fortunate to have periods in my life where I just got to pour 70-90 hours a week into a programming project, sometimes doing multiple 16-20 hour sessions over night in cafés, then taking a few days off to recover, with no distractions. Including commercial work, at a place with 20 or so other good engineers that allowed for a one-meeting-a-week culture because we just got each other and the tech stack was narrow enough to keep us compatible. The sheer amount of stuff you can get done and the level of satisfaction are amazing. I will always love those times. Everything you say about environment and org structure I fully agree with. But you don't have to be exceptional or gifted to benefit from an environment that trusts a creative worker to solve problems.