I feel genuinely sad for people who believe this. As someone who is extremely critical of my own work, the feeling of walking home knowing I really did something well is so awesome.

A job well done can be its own reward, that is true. Just be careful that the satisfaction does not turn into the main reward, because your management also knows that you derive significant value from the satisfaction and will attempt to save on raises/promotions/etc since you are apparently already happy enough even without those.

Also, spending your career in cynicism guarantees depression of some sorts. It makes you dull, you’ll have poor friends, you’ll attract the worst of people, you’ll create a toxic workplace that would resemble some of the worst run government departments. Impossible to fire, useless bloat of people that have zero interest in improving themselves or others, and life a fulfilling life.

Sad. But on the bright side, those that excel at what they do are going to be disproportionately rewarded. I love this aspect of society and certain political ideologies want to destroy this.

Also raises, promotions, bonuses, RSUs...

No, those are earned through office politics. A job well done is a good bargaining chip when playing office politics, but it doesn't guarantee you raises, bonuses, promotions or RSUs.