Maybe in the short term doing a bunch of mixes/masters over and over again is just a good way of getting better at it?
As many have said, we may have a keen interest in great sounding audio, but so many of our favorite records are ‘unlistenable’ from an audiophile point of view. A great piece of music with a great performance beats a pristine mix every time, which brings up another point…
Some of my least favorite mixes turned out to be some of my least favorite tunes. The best mix can’t really rescue a bad tune and it seems the reverse is true as well.
Working on music is still the best thing ever and engineering skills can be developed with time and practice. Have fun with it!