Hear Hear! When talking to Junior Devs i always point out that they should take into account the Lindy Effect and invest some of their learning time into things that were here for atleast a century so they can get enjoyment out of their accomplishment for the rest of their lives.
You don't want to die without making at least ONE perfect pizza.
The latter arguably runs somewhat counter to a lot of MVP, etc. approaches but recognizing the difference is still useful.
You just put into words what’s been bothering me about the way my team works. The “process” people—while well-intentioned—seem to think that by breaking inherently complex tasks up in just the right way, they can make the complexity go away.
Well, no. If that’s really the idea, why are you paying me so much?
IT is a fast-moving field. Solving business problems takes understanding which good ways to do that are currently available, what limitations and dangers each approach brings, how would it interact with other things, etc.
You still need deep knowledge, but the most efficient knowledge is that of key principles, general approaches and ideas. A specific technology does not matter much, and can be mastered quickly enough, if you already are acquainted with the principles behind it. E.g. learn about FRP, and you will see how React, Elm, and Excel all work along the same lines.
What you end up with after some time is like a normal distribution: deeper knowledge around some area and various levels of acquaintance with a wide range of other things.
There are still areas where you can polish the mastery of one narrow thing to utter perfection: making pizza or coffee, sports like running or weightlifting, etc. You can keep practicing them to counterweight the feeling from the view of the sheer and constantly moving IT landscape.