I've mostly made a living by being an engineer who creates proper, focused software tools for other engineers to use, and almost every program I've written is because there was a crappy Excel tool trying to cope with the problem, and falling over due to size and unshareability. That's when I write a website in Rails, or a WinForms .NET application, keep adding features until users stop asking for fixes, then move on to the next one.
Of course, there's been ebb-and-flow in my career, but the bulk of it has been driven by the fact that Excel is so seductive, and easy to start something useful. Then, like a lot of Microsoft products, leaves you hanging when it's time to get serious. So, credit where it's due. Whatever you can say about it's shortcomings, they've been my bread and butter for 27 years, and counting.