Not sure what would motivate an employer to hire early career vs someone with 5 years of experience. Maybe paying new hires less than experienced ones?
Even in the more "chill" jobs you are expected to pass multiple rounds, be among the best among the candidates.
I just want to be average in the candidate standings, for an average dev job.
My suggestion would be to find some niche that allows to you not face that constant hustle. Look for the Venn diagram where you can add a lot of value, but the competition isn't as fierce. For example, if you are both good at coding and understand, say, physical systems like HVAC, you can focus on an industry like building automation that doesn't iterate as fast. Or maybe you really like aviation and can develop CFD models. Point being, it's much less competitive when your field requires two complementary, but distinct, knowledge bases.