Maybe. I've always enjoyed whatever corporate employment I have had, because I could build things using much (!) more expensive equipment than I could afford to set up on my own. Maybe I've been fortunate - or maybe I'm just wired differently.
The things I enjoy building don't require expensive equipment. Just a little bit of time - which is spent working a 9 to 5. Most people work their 9 to 5 to pay their various bills (Rent, Food, Utilities, Internet, Entertainment). I think it is important to enjoy your work or else you'll be unhappy. But I don't think it's uncommon to enjoy your hobbies more than your work.
For example - I love languages! I wanted to become a polyglot in high school and speak several languages well enough to hold small talk. Practicing a language to fluency without residing in a country it is spoken is a lot of effort and requires a lot of self-motivation and time dedication. I rarely study anymore and am no longer confident in my ability to hold small talk in German or Portuguese. It's extremely satisfying to learn about various cultures, their history, and being able to speak with natives! You learn so many things about the world when you expand your ability to explore other cultures. No work to me is more satisfying.
But cultural and linguistic anthropologists, after putting themselves into debt from college, hardly make more than a McDonald's Manager. Not to mention work is sparse and difficult to find - nearly impossible outside of academia. I went with a job with more job opportunities and a higher base salary so that I could afford my more expensive hobbies like playing video games and actually visiting other countries to learn about their cultures. Something I wouldn't be able to afford to do if I had my "dream job" instead of a "well paying job".
But that leaves with me less energy and less motivation to study the foreign languages I would like to learn. I had to cut it down from twelve languages to three languages and I'm still not fluent in the two I'm studying. It's just too mentally exhausting to go from my day job to studying foreign languages during my free time day in and day out.
That makes sense. And it resonates with me. When I was young, I was interested in both Japanese and Russian. When I graduated, my first job out of college was with a semiconductor company in Japan. My experience, like your observation, was that I'd never be able to achieve any level of fluency unless I resided in-country and conducted my daily affairs in the language.
