Is it hard to guess why designing electronics could possibly be good/interesting work? It involves programming, design, physics, math, and making real things we use everyday - medical devices, cars, satellites, cameras, etc

It sounded like no upside existed from his description.

They weren't trying to convince you that it's a pleasant occupation. I'm sure that the content of the comment would have a different emphasis if they were.

Then the question still stands.

What I'm getting at is, while QA might be hard I'm sure doing hard things might pay off some way instead of no way at all.

They weren't trying to describe the payoff, just the process...although the description did have some things that sound rewarding to me.

- Iterating through a project and seeing new functionality implemented can be rewarding

- The chase of business negotiations and inter-personal problem-solving can be rewarding

"Why" just strikes me as an off-topic, unspecific, and weird question to ask.

He was describing why doing QA is hard, and I'm suggesting (not to you clearly) some good reason for doing it still exists or he wouldn't be in that business.

I apologize for striking you as off-topic.