I’ll say one thing though: all of those skills you mentioned as not being valued are extremely useful for indie dev/taking ownership. Shipping simple + correct code frequently is extremely possible with sufficient practice and discipline.

More to your point, this is why I switched toward being a research engineer. There is a higher barrier of entry, projects are quite technically challenging, and constraints often force thinking of a world of computing beyond the tiny sphere of the web browser.

It’s hard work, but I love it.

If this resonates, you are in the US, and looking for a change, drop me a note (see profile).