> I read this appraisal of what "most devs" want/care about on HN frequently. Is there actually any evidence to back this up? e.g. broad surveys where most devs say they're just in it for the paycheck and don't care about the quality of their work?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law

Almost every field I've ever seen is like that. Most people don't know what they're doing and hate their jobs in every field. We managed to make even the conceptually most fulfilling jobs awful (teaching, medicine, etc).