Just because we don't feel any great love for spreadsheets doesn't meant nobody else does. I've only known two professional accountants but both enjoy what they do, not just the externality of providing the useful service. They like working with the numbers and rules. People called me weird at law school because I actually liked tax law. I'm fascinated by the interaction (aka train wreck) of public policy hitting financial ground truth. I would real tax cases and laugh out loud at some of the insanity. Just because something isn't popular or widely understood doesn't mean there aren't people who enjoy it.
Find it tolerable, maybe even like it? Sure. Show me someone who would do taxes on their own time for fun. I've sometimes heard it said that the main reason people decide to go into auditing or tax is they couldn't stand the other one.
For that matter, let's talk about a closer career to ours. How many people who are system administrators complain about relatives asking them for free consultations? Would that be an issue if they just loved configuring and troubleshooting computers so much? Even if you like computers a lot, what you get paid to do with them isn't necessarily fun.
Sure, I think I allowed for that possibility. But as noted, I was basing this on my own experience - I know multiple people in all of these professions. Unlike the others, none of the accountants have loved the nuts and bolts work in the same way many of the others did. Could just be sample bias.
