> But unlike the author, I came back to the workforce. I don’t know what’s the end game for the author, but I kind of feel torn here.

His timing wasn't great. The tech job market is pretty dismal right now and will likely be dismal for a while. Unless we get back to a hot tech job market like circa 2020-2022 it's not going to be easy to find a gig after being out for 2 years.