IME, the games industry isn't like other pieces of the tech industry where, say, 30% of devs clock in and clock out, collecting a paycheck. it's much rarer (but not impossible) to find someone still in the industry after 5+ years and not passionate. The churn is enourmous and the kinds of management in there are always pushing to get more out of you.

You don't stick with that because you are low quality or lazy. You do it for the people you work with or the product you work on. Naively, perhaps. But there is certainly fulfillment you get out of it.

I'm a cog and even if I break the machine has plenty of redundancy. Nothing to be ashamed about. I got my experiences, expanded network, compensaion, and war stories, they got my X years of labor. It's all a transaction towards each others' true end goals.