This is the major dilemma of my career right now... move close or farther away from embedded..

1. Tools are shit sometimes

2. fixing bugs no-one else understands (and so you don't receive proper praise - because manager might not even understand what you did)

3. Literally spending weeks on insane hardware issues, that requires sifting through 1000 page documentation.

4. harder work - less pay (depending on company)

The major positive is it's extremely satisfying when you do fix the things..