I'm guessing you've never experience working at an early stage startup? At a 3 < n < 100 employee start up you absolutely are not "eaten up by a trillion small

I'm guessing you've never experience working at an early stage startup? At a 3 < n < 100 employee start up you absolutely are not "eaten up by a trillion small admin" and at the same time you can visibly see your impact on the product and company in basically real time. I've had work I've finished on a Monday directly lead to a potential major contract by Friday. I've seen features I've implemented show up in a pitch deck that directly lead to the next round of funding. Every single person on the team can personally point to something that they've done that has lead to our team's success so far. It's immensely rewarding to see a company grow and realize that without you personally, that growth wouldn't have happened in the way it did. "90% of the time you are basically just hacking" is sounds fun, but I personally find it much more rewarding to see each week's work making incremental but visible changes not only in the product but the company itself.