Because I don't just want ANY programming job. In fact, that is the approach I took with my first job and hated it.

>You may not score a FAANG position, but you may make a decent living in your chosen profession. Sure, you may not get to use cutting edge methods or innovative libraries, but you'll help others with your coding ability, for instance, consider all the mom and pop websites out there that look terrible and perform terribly. Those sites are an opportunity for you or for me, less talented and gifted people, to provide value where the rock stars wouldn't deign to work.

I'm not interested in those opportunities. That's why I've been studying Leetcode as hard as I can, to get something better than my intellect deserves.