[tjchear]

Hey, that's the mark of a great engineer. I'm sorry your peers did not see the value in what you do.

My armchair diagnosis is you and your company are a poor fit for each other at this phase of the company. You have probably already surmised that you'd do better at large corporations or companies not focused on growth, but on greasing and sustaining their existing products.

Since you mention that you can't quit this job, there are several options you can consider:

1. Internal transfer to another team, if possible.

2. Start looking for other opportunities that are more aligned with what you do.

3. Be mindful of priorities and timelines. Visualize and draw the timeline on a piece of paper if you have to, and understand that it's physically impossible to do both new feature and the small tasks, and still meet the deadline. Hopefully doing so helps you to see the big picture as the company sees it, and lets you override your compulsion. Write this down on a sticky note as a reminder and stick it on your monitor if you have to.

[trilinearnz]

I agree with this. The OP is demonstrating a level of conscientiousness, professionalism and self-agency that a lot of companies would like from their developers who only do what they are told to do. See: Theory X and Theory Y management (don't want to work vs. want to work).

However my only addition to what the poster above mentioned, is be wary of the perils of the consequences of continually updating dependencies as this can be a never-ending spiral. If your organisation lacks the labour to maintain projects properly, your efforts may well be more sensibly allocated towards the greenfields areas you are being asked to focus on.