I'm not comparing frontend to backend. I also think data is fun and I don't mean to be little the job, but in a real world scenario its detail intensive, under appreciated, tons of edge cases and extremely complex if you plan to make it scalable and fast. So if you are an aspiring data engineer be aware of these pitfalls, because the first couple times you do it you will think its fun to try something new and create some fun useful analytics, but customers will often complain at how long it takes and want more. It starts to wear away at ones drive and passion for data. Its not the data aspect its the job/deadline aspect.