I think the outlet for creativity unbound by customer expectations is what I enjoy about this hobby. I make several simple lagers for those who won’t go outside their comfort zone (or who need a gateway to realize that there are great styles they haven’t experienced yet), but those are sometimes almost autopilot beers that I get satisfaction from incremental improvement by trying new malts, hops or yeast strains on. If I had to brew the same beer over and over in a production facility, it would get old pretty quick, though I appreciate the efforts of the pro brewers to replicate so nearly identical beers in successive batches in that setting. For that I give them credit.
As for working for myself - I have been a partner in a small group for years, pretty much doing my thing in an area that none of my partners do, so the lack of a safety net is sometimes disconcerting, but you can get used to it and seek outside resources…like this forum represents for my hobby!
so far in my experience the only thing worse than working for yourself is working for someone else. Either way, if you get to do something you enjoy it sucks a lot less.
don’t get hung up on the fact that it’s a ‘job’. even if you ‘have to’ be there, if you love what you are doing it’s easy to enjoy the work. if you hate what you are doing then it’s going to suck no matter who you’re working for.