Of course, not everything can ever be anticipated, so tight feedback loops are fantastic when you can get them.
I've been tinkering with 3D printers long enough that I've trivially halved print times after seeing long print time predictions. Lots of my brackets and parts fits together on first try and needs no supports. Rapid turnaround did help in _acquiring_ those skills, but now I could just waterfall little projects and tight looping is not that important.
I interact with a lot of people like the author in the article from this industry. And while yes, their worklife balance skews "work", they all have interesting hobbies and find time to hang out with friends, go on adventures, and live a pretty full life.
Unless you're on the Starship team at SpaceX. Truly, hats off to y'all at Boca Chica some intense hours you are pulling there.
But such employees will sometimes leave and build their own stuff. Which they'll very likely succeed at, exactly because of the approach they have.
Ultimately, I think these are a bit different fields/markets, and a bit different kind of jobs. Engineers creating real unique new stuff, vs more "bland" engineers just being a hand to accelerate someone's efforts. I worked in both roles and can clearly see pros and cons of both. Largely depends also on life phase one's at, which one would a person prefer.
Microsoft was known at some time to provide good environment for their engineers so they could focus on making the product, instead of learning the business side of things, which both removed distractions and reduced the incentives to leave and do things without well-learned habits.
Also, a rocket engine is a core feature of a rocket (literally cannot fly without it). If they started development of this engine in 2018, that's *six years* of work to get to their current state. Imagine spending 6 years on a core feature of an app that you'd consider "min-viable", and everytime you had a bug the computer you compiled the code on spontaneously combusted?
Eventually though, it became just a job, as it always does. And then the gaze turned elsewhere, looking for more enjoyment and satisfaction.