Mid-career I went back to school for a PhD in Computer Science, and now I definitely think of myself as a CS researcher rather than an engineer. I still write code occasionally, but it’s no longer a daily activity. I switched because I wanted to better understand the why’s of what I was doing as an engineer (applied ML by the time I got out if the game). I like it a lot! Grad school salary was a rough come down after engineer money, but I was a saver, and I saw it as an investment in my happiness and future career. And I really love what I do now and feel like I have real impact on the world, so it was very much worth it!