At the risk of being called a "boomer" I think lots of newer devs got in to the field for the money, and the remote possibilities. In my experience it seems like the genuine curiosity of computers is isn't what it was.
Well, just a single example, but I got into the field because I was passionate about it. A decade later, most of that's gone, beaten out of me on the altar of scrum ceremonies and endless product churn. I do my job and go home.
What do you wish you did instead? I hate meetings too, but programming pays a lot more than the other career I considered 20 years ago. (electrician)
There's nothing. I don't get the massive united states pay, but I do well. I just can't be bothered to love it anymore. It's a job.
Just an aside, electricians are thriving in this economy.
I have a private Instagram account and there's a new trend of reels: someone asks a student what they're studying and if they say "computer science" or "software engineering" the person replies "oh I'm so sorry. Can you eat today? Here's a dollar."
You can see that comments on those videos are students who just entered CS and are afraid (questioning whether they should switch majors.)