I for one am one of the desk jockeys.
I cannot be happier than when working on a difficult coding project, sitting at a powerful workstation 12 hours per day without other people (ok perhaps just 1 or 2 others, working on the same project) around.

My family is what keeps my feet on the ground. If I didn't have a wife to go home to, and kids to be responsible of, I'd probably still be doing that work. I don't like going home early. I like working late. And I wouldn't have stepped out of my consulting job to being an employee close to home, if not for my kids.

To each his own. It takes people like me as well to make the world go round.
I wholeheartedly agree that quality is important. But that is not exclusive to crafts.
Quality in code or software in general can make or break a company.