To gently push back, there are absolutely accountants and roofers who dedicate their free time upskilling or in adjacent hobbies. Many (perhaps most?) other fields have are conferences and journals, certifications, prestige jobs and grindhouse jobs, side hustles, and all the other trappings that feel unique to us. I'm not saying the distribution curve is the same, but it's easy to think this field is more unique than it really is.
And to the counterexample, the country is full of developers who just want to do their 40 hours and go home to their entirely unrelated life and hobbies. Incidentally, I have a friend who just got a job like this. He's the only developer in a regional materials company, and he loves being done with work at 5 (usually closer to 4) so he can go hang out with his kid.
They make long articles to maximize ad exposure and SEO. It's good faith --they're doing what they have to to make money with the underlying tech ecosystem-- but it's not a good outcome.
LLMs are shifting that ecosystem (at least temporarily) and new revenue models will emerge. It'll take time to figure out. But we shouldn't artificially support a bad system just because it's the existing system.
Transitions are always awkward. In the meantime, I'm inclined to give people rope to experiment.
And to the counterexample, the country is full of developers who just want to do their 40 hours and go home to their entirely unrelated life and hobbies. Incidentally, I have a friend who just got a job like this. He's the only developer in a regional materials company, and he loves being done with work at 5 (usually closer to 4) so he can go hang out with his kid.