In my (small) experience I've seen that only once, a perfect specimen who fits your description. Unfortunately this person was acting-CTO of a startup. They decided that for a consumer product very close to what a smartphone can do, they didn't need an OS. So they started writing their build system with make only, then an OS, an IP stack, then a GUI, then added support for multithreading,... Of course Android existed, that was the end of the 2010s. The retail price of a cheap (and faster!) Android phone was even lower than our BOM.
4 years and 20M later, the company went bankrupt without having delivered the product it promised, but they had fun writing their "superior" software.
As long as people are in charge, we'll have plenty willing to pay technical workers who see themselves as artists.
That sounds like a fantastic hobby project - but being able to tell the difference between a hobby project and a viable product in the marketplace is... maybe something AI can help with!? :P
As long as people are in charge, we'll have plenty willing to pay technical workers who see themselves as artists.