Incorrect; I've had multiple full-time part-time jobs (once two at a time, which worked out really well). I don't quite understand where you're coming from here.

Sadly there's some truth to this. I'd really hoped that once I was adult it'd be easier to distance myself from people who reward effort for effort's sake.

On a related note, it's also really hard to distance yourself from people who "are doing it wrong" in general. I can't tell you the amount of effort I've had to waste learning a topic that from a distance I could vaguely tell was not worth learning, just so I could have reasonable arguments as to why it's inferior to some other idea. This is particularly frustrating in tech because of the complexity of many tech stacks, that just getting to a point where you can sound like an expert just to provide counterpoints can be exhausting.

That's part of the job, though: deciding on technologies requires some knowledge. But I'm not sure I get what you're saying: you know it's inferior how? A "feeling" isn't a valid reason for discounting tech.

This is the real world where people are compensated at a rate that correlates with their (perceived) value.

People regularly deliver a value that nets them a good income without putting in 40+ hours a week.