How can I make a switch to more value-creating roles? Is this even possible?
What is "tech company" and "tech work"? Are you a programmer writing code? A technician that sets up routers? A sysadmin setting up software for others? Were you setting up
What exactly were you doing? In what way that work was "passive" (and what does it even mean)?
And how do you determine what is "value-creating"?
Is "value" in this context "money" or some more philosophical "value to the world"?
If it's money, do you mean "your salary" or the monetary value of the thing you helped create? (you can be creating very valuable things for your employer but be paid little, and vice versa).
I assume it was paid internship. So someone was paying you to do what you did. Were they idiots (i.e. paying you for doing things that don't create value) or did you create value but it wasn't reflected in your paycheck?
Once we know all that, we can start to give advice.
Without this information: there are plenty of jobs that are meaningful, create value to the world and are well paid. Find one.
Get a job at Google and at the very least you'll be well compensated
I write code working on CRUD apps and microservices and some security focused roles.
Value-creating would be something that provides utility to society at large so value to the world.
I was being paid money and I was very well compensated but I did not find the work challenging or interesting, I felt like a cog in a well-oiled machine and easily replaceable which I think are the majority of jobs out there.
A simple solution: start your own small business.
Write an app or a web service and sell it to people.
The work will be as challenging and interesting as you want and you'll be the ultimate decider. A supreme leader of your own organization.
Note: by "simple" I don't mean "easy".
I'm doing exactly that, I'm working on a project that I hope will become an income generating business (https://presstige.io, for full transparency) but it's risky and requires lots of work.
Also consider than your ennui is more about how you look at things than objective reality. Many people would be deliriously happy with a stable, safe, well paying job writing code and I'm sure many people are quite happy doing exactly that.
Flight safety instructions suggest putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others.
Optimize along a less lofty axis first (money, experience). The taxes you pay alone create more social "value", statistically speaking.
I was hoping that it might be possible to find a middle ground, where I contribute to something that creates value and is also decent money and experience.