N=1 from West EU: things are slowly changing in the entirety of the West. Demands are increasing and compensations aren't matching up remotely. We're very much adopting the mentality of SV without the big paychecks.
And we're still making the same crud apps as before. Just now they look a little fancier and we don't manually deploy. Maybe.
but on the other hand I feel like I'd feel like I've went into some bad direction with my life - where's the curiosity part?
Idk, whenever I read about US software engineering market then I feel like it's one big game
Here in eastern eu I've never been asked about anything that isn't day to day stuff.
Of course sample size N=1, but also you don't need fanciness for crud apps :)