Just chill out and enjoy the process. Waste happens, that's life. Americans earn huge 100k + salaries yet they are all on prozac!!!
> Extraneous cognitive load
> Psychological distress
Are types of stress that introduce "waste" (or rather inefficiency). The root cause? Ignoring the human factor.
Programmers, designers and other tech workers are not robots. We can't be. That's the job of the software we build.
Our well being, happiness and engagement matters. Ultimately we are craftspeople, want to work with good people, take care of our tools and products and we need time and resources to do it right. We want to be proud of what we build or at least confident in how we build it.
Too many programmers are anxious and worried because they are not given enough time and agency. Many lack connection to the users of their products and services, so they don't see the point.
So I cannot fully agree with what you're saying. Sure, inefficiencies happen, waste is unavoidable. But the issues above are concerning.
When we do things with care and consideration, give them both enough breathing room and focused attention, then we make better things and are happier for it. Mix that with a healthy dose of pragmatism and we also avoid doing the wrong or too many things.