I say this as a person who never had to worry a day in my life about money, because I thought programming was super interesting, and learned C when I was 12, and made more money than both my parents combined by the time I was 18. It was never about money for me, but I wouldn't blame anyone for doing it for the paycheck.
Falling in line with conventional viewpoints rarely gets you kudos, since it is what most people do.
I wonder if your manager feels the same way you feel about code, but about meetings. Maybe they wish you'd chosen a career that paid less because you don't enjoy meetings. You probably drag their working day right down by not finding meetings super fun.
Anyways, their manager can stick their opinion where the sun doesn’t shine, just OP does probably since it’s anticlimactic to express opinions like that.
I have some genuine interest and it won't be ling until I'm able to write small to medium programs. At that point working in an unrelated field is a bottleneck because I don't have time to spend programming. Hence I need a job so I can focus my time on actually doing it. Any advice? How I prove I'm good enough for entry level even though I'm "old" without a relevant degree? Avoiding employers that will push bad coding habits on me?