[c0nfused]

Anecdotally, It is all culture. I have friends in Asia who try to work for international firms instead of the local ones because they get European style PTO and scheduling. The idea that you should have "you" time is not a cross cultural phenomenon, nor is it universally held even in the west. We pay it lip service and then expect people to put in 60 hours weeks during crunch or if they are gunning for a promotion.

I would argue from a management prospective the programmer hours are very much like coal mines, time goes in and features come out. The big difference is that you can sell the software more than once.