There are plenty of modern day ETL tools like Funnel, Improvad or Dataddo to help with that part of the puzzle, though it does mean you have to pay another saas each month on top of Tableau.

Exactly. Instead of ETL, start writing your own Perl and various logical, reusable components. Roll your own ETL, however you want it, in a terminal. So what, you have to learn vim, big deal! Mouse driven interfaces are a huge part of the dysfunction.

Yea I've been a little confused here until I realized I would just write some bash, Python, Perl...etc script where some would advocate for complicated tools.

And after a few years you leave your job, a new person comes in and gets stuck with your script soup and lack of documentation.

Companies prefer well known products like Alteryx or Tableau because, despite the cost, it makes people easier to replace.

But i cant blame you for writing your own things. Im currently replacing a large SSIS-based etl proces with Python, because i'm sick of SSIS randomly breaking.