I can relate to both: if you can be proud of your work ("I helped build this, and hundreds of people are using it"), that's a good feeling. If however the process is bureaucratic and you feel like a small cog in the machine without any influence on how the project will turn out, then I can understand that it's not a satisfying experience. Depending on the project, you can also have both - on some days you will have the former feeling, on some days the latter.