He didn't pooh-pooh anyone's careers.

The way it's worded comes across that way.

I have spent a good deal of my life writing software to put food on the table. I didn't interpret any of what he wrote in the way you describe. Perhaps you could explain why you did.

Both can be true: we can have different preferences about what we're doing to put food on the table and what we're doing when we build something on our own for other reasons.

To me it's not the same. I earn money doing software work for my employer, but I'd never think about creating a paid application myself. Feels icky to me.