"Software is incredibly complex"
Who sold you on that lie? Software is anything but complex. Literally guys without any kind of degree could do it. You should try hardware design, validation, with one of them FPGA platforms. Start with something easy like a PCIe core... :-) It will plant you back in reality real quick.
The biggest scam is SWE's convincing themselves that whatever they're doing is soooo complicated!
"Who sold you on that lie? Hardware is anything but complex. Literally guys without any kind of degree could do it, just buy a breadboard and some arduino-pi or whatnot."
That's you, that's what you sound like.