I fully agree with you. After a few happy experiences in development, I started to work as a developer for an ERP service company. I was served functional spec that I had to implement. I only had to look at the technical of things, and I quickly became bored.
So I transitioned to a client-facing role which was more interesting in a way, but with too much stress and too much management to do.
Now I try to find my niche in between, staying client facing but still handling the technical tasks. I find it's a really interesting position, it's very efficient since it reduce the amount of necessary communication, and it's very satisfying.
I would make a difference between "design" and "a lot of small and convenient functionalities that makes your life easier".
People prefer gsheet to calc not because of one big missing functionality, because as you say, you can always find a way. It's more that excel/gsheet makes your life way easier, and saves you a lot of time.
I use both gsheet (for work) and calc (for personal stuff). I really want to give calc a chance so I accept the excess time it takes me to use it, but I understand that some people don't. And I would not say that it's related to "feelings", it's more a problem of "ease of use" and "doing things fast".