I'm on a very small team where I'm the technical lead and I code every day. I make whatever tech decisions I want.
I have a salary that's not large, but I also work a 30 hour week. 100% remote and nobody cares when those 30-ish hours are as long as I get stuff done and make some rare client meetings.
I trust my boss, who does the sales for the company, and generally she sells these really great projects with a lot of padding so there is always plenty of slack (praise bob).
Sometimes the projects are kind of dumb, but I'm still learning new things and they are large enough in scope that I can dive into some fun stuff.
So with all that, working is not a bad deal for me at all... it's something that I spend a whole lot of time doing, but it's also fun and pays well and I still have time for my 16-year-old, a girlfriend, and playing some music with friends.