I certainly didn't intend to sugarcoat anything. I was actually hoping to lay bare the harsh reality that work is often disappointing. I would hazard a guess that maligree has built at least a few things they're proud of at work. I read their post as expressing an overall feeling that they're not at home in their job, which to my understanding is a tangent from whether or not you have individual accomplishments to be proud of.
I'll double down on my original comment and say that if you depend on work to be your ultimate source of fulfillment (another way of calling it a home), the disappointment and reality that "sw engineering is hard work and more often than not feels like a waste of time" will always pull the rug out from under you at some point.
