Directionally, yes.

Part of my motivation for writing this was wondering what would be the solution to what I see as a lot of failed engineering careers of folks in 30s and 40s. I know a lot of them, genuinely great engineers - but somewhere down the line, their expectations of their life shifted, but what they did with their time did not - resulting in dissatisfaction.

Hence, a suggestion to focus on the objective value being created vs. individual engineering tasks as a better barometer of progress.