Many people find being part of a team that build something great or useful to be fulfilling and take pride in their work even if they're only a small replaceable part of the process. The blue collar profession related subreddits are a pretty good example of this.
Pretty much all lower level software development is no more remarkable than working on an assembly line. Code I've written helped streamline testing for a tiny bit of code that's a tiny part of a single piece of software that's part of a massive software hardware system that can be used make it harder to slip an IED under a dead camel without anyone noticing. Is that really any less important than the guy checking bearing tolerances before shipping the bearings to the manufacturer of the machine used roll the threads on the bolts that will affix to the airplane the hardware the software system uses?
We're all just a tiny part of a bigger machine on some level.
Pretty much all lower level software development is no more remarkable than working on an assembly line. Code I've written helped streamline testing for a tiny bit of code that's a tiny part of a single piece of software that's part of a massive software hardware system that can be used make it harder to slip an IED under a dead camel without anyone noticing. Is that really any less important than the guy checking bearing tolerances before shipping the bearings to the manufacturer of the machine used roll the threads on the bolts that will affix to the airplane the hardware the software system uses?
We're all just a tiny part of a bigger machine on some level.