Call me user, I'm going to use a fake name every time anyway. I couldn't be any less concerned with how I'm addressed by a machine as long as it isn't 'citizen', because I ain't picking up any cans.
I appreciate you for relating your experience. It's not ambition or challenge that is lacking, we are what's commonly called 'Amish'. This is just how we do things.
I'm sure this creates more questions than it answers, however, I hope it lends some context as to how we've both arrived at our own respective happy milieus.
To me, there is value in the process and craft. It started as a one year challenge to use only stdlib in all projects, for work and personal code, and became a way of life. Though it may not work for everyone, or all languages, or all skillsets, it was a revealing experience.
In retrospect, it made sense given that in my community we make our own furniture, instruments, tools, foods from whole items. Code seemed like the next logical step. During travels, once there was a man who had a word in his language for this. He said it was an aphorism loosely translatable to "the beauty of struggle". As he explained it, this is the positive benefit gained in return for the time and effort to do something as an act of appreciation of the craft, and how the value in the experience surpasses the debt of time and sweat.
To put it in a more modern and eastern philosphical context, think of it like Kata.
You don't have to buy from anywhere, you can scribble your account number on some newspaper wrapped around cash, send it in, and they credit you. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get some credits for a batch of chocolate chip cookies or something, they accept so many forms of payment.