>Intellectual output is not lost, it's just maintenance for people with brains wired a certain way.

I have this theory about engineering minded people; that we are addicts no different than any other, just that our substance is problem solving. We are problem solving addicts. Nothing fulfills our brain even remotely close to that feedback loop of "unknown unknowns -> beginning to understand -> total mastery". Without that fix, we get irritable, depressed, and anxious just like normal withdrawal symptoms. Surely any one of us can point to a time of intense focus on a problem that led to our physical/social lives deteriorating in some way, not unlike an addict losing themselves on a bender. And games like Factorio et. al. provide a low stakes, on-demand source of this to people like us when real life can't provide it.