Yes but if OP is building stuff on the side, this type of employment may give the time & headspace to do it, along with less stress.

I dissagree: he hates his job, that is what is producing the stress in the first place.

Otherwise he'd be happy keeping a job and having the weekends for his own projects.

But this is obviously not the case.

My impression is that he is comparing himself to others and worrying about other developers working weekends, possibly making him look bad if he does not do the same. The reality is that the “weekend warriors” at the company are doing more of the same type of work while he would be working on other tech of his own interests on weekends if desired, broadening his knowledge of other toolsets and methods, which will prove quite valuable in the long run.

Quit worrying about what other people are doing.

My solution to that problem was to switch fields. Now I have a rather comfortable job and plenty of free time. I get to work on whatever I want and only if I feel like it.

Some days I wonder what it would have been like if I had chosen to program professionally. I try to maintain my skills just in case.

That's easier said than done. I'm a data scientist/ML engineer rather than a software dev, but I don't think I have any skills that would give me remotely similar pay in any other field. At least not without going back to school. I could teach math or CS as an adjunct I guess? Build and sell computers? Enact crypto scams? Maybe I lack imagination ...