Why don't you? 10 years ago I was getting tired of working on php crud apps, revived my electronics hobby, practiced on small contracting jobs, landed an interesting embedded software position which then lead to my current position job at a drone company. I had to pick up some new hobbies though, after I made a job out of my hobby- maybe that's what you're afraid of? :)
Mostly money. It’s not a popular answer but doing what I do I make nearly 500% more than doing what I miss doing. I’ve got family and future to save for, and I can get to my goals faster doing this stuff. The upside is that I might be able to “retire” in a few years, which to my mind is doing what you want to do regardless of the compensation. So we will see :-) I may just join you soon.
Alas, most of us are cursed to build CRUD applications in either old but reliable tech or the latest and greatest, which will be replaced with the next latest greatest in ~5 years when the next generation of over-excited devs rocks up. Sigh.
I feel this. As a first year Computer Science student at university I am currently torn between staying as CS or switching to Computer Engineering. I am really interested in the low level aspects of computers from a software perspective (OS development, assembly, compilers) but I feel my education in my area of interest won’t be complete if I don’t also understand things from a hardware perspective.