For me, the goal is mostly to program/learn fun stuff. So my game is just a canvas for exploring. Instead if wondering what to do, I get inspired by potential features I could add. Like, I wanted to add a lake of water to my game. I've spent weeks learning how water shaders work just for that, even though ut really has no influence on my game. I also could just have downloaded/bought a water asset if I actually wanted to move forward with my game.
So I'm a "burrower", but mainly by choice.