TBH, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the programmers in game studios are still passionate about the work and that's why they're there. (Well that and inertia where moving on once they see the reality of the situation feels like too much effort.) The careerists and Karens are more often in the writing and designing groups and unfortunately, they're the ones who seem to have control.
Nah, design tends to be the most passionate in my experience (until being constantly told "no, that's too much effort" by management kills them inside) and writing is so fucking amateur that concepts like "career" don't even register. All the shitheads are always, ALWAYS in management (and possibly marketing, but marketing has a very small pull so who cares). And you think it's them being nefariously greedy or aiming at a mass market or whatever, but no, they're just stupid. That's the worst thing about it all – they're just colossaly dumb, so dumb that I think if you replaced them with the janitors cleaning up trash in the office, they'd probably do a better job. I personally witnessed a project manager from Ubisoft of 7 years (!!!) being sat down in front of a game.
MANAGER: "How do I move?"
QA: "You use WASD."
MANAGER: *moves* "Oh. And how do I run?"
QA: "You press shift."
MANAGER: *lets go of WASD, presses shift* "Nothing's happening. The game's broken."
I wish I was fucking kidding.