The boundary between work and play for me has long been wrecked. Tech is interesting to me, so I spend a lot of time on projects that are somewhere in between. When my wife asks what I was doing in my office all weekend, I've decided on calling it "study."
If I really think about it though, it's not play. It's more about financial security than fulfillment, even though solving some problem feels good. It's not playing guitar, or writing, or being funny. There are creative aspects to tech, but for me it's somewhat adjacent to the kind of creativity that fulfills me or builds esteem.
That doesn't mean I mind it. It's more creative than many jobs I have done. I worked at a copy store, landscaping, house painting. My current work is more creative than that. But it's not as creative as playing in a band, or even service industry stuff: bartending or waiting tables.