Of the 219 factors causing unhappiness, I'm guessing 218 of them are 'constantly changing requirements' :) The last one is 'nobody refilled the coffee machine.'
I think Fall 2023 is way more likely than Fall 2022. The game would need to be in a close-to-release beta right now for a shipment 6-7 months from now IMO.
I've done this periodically, I highly recommend it. I hadn't been looking at any news this year (other than pure tech news/game sites), but broke that streak this week to watch and see if Russia starts WW3.
I work in the security industry. The products I work on help keep hundreds of thousands of people safer in an online world whose threat landscape is expanding daily. That sounds like a marketing sound bite, but it's absolutely true.
My homesteading fantasies were tempered by a real examination of the amount of hard, hard work and time every day that's required. It sounds like you might be happier with a house on a one acre lot within easy driving distance of a city, where you can grow a kitchen garden and maybe keep some chickens. A tech job can afford you that ability. Good luck.
So, I would describe that as a dysfunctional sales team. I've worked at everything from a 40-person startup to companies with over 100,000 employees. The sales engineers on the teams have been the ones with their hands dirty throughout the entire deal lifecycle, and the first ones on call in the weeks following going live to bug hunt.
If you want a base salary that high, move into Product Management or Sales/Sales Engineering. Maybe Data Analytics/Engineering if you're really good at math and find the right company.
I just hired a junior UX designer in part because of their really cool side project. It's not something I was asking for or expecting in the job req, but I for sure looked at it when it was on their resume.
Jennifer Sherman's book _Those Who Work, Those Who Don't_, is a fascinating (and depressing) exploration of what this means, and the social changes that happen when men (mostly former loggers) can't signal their virtue via this kind of blue-collar work. Check it out.
edit: speeling