Unrelated question since you've got the Swift experience: How would you recommend a modern day Mac utility get sold? Is grabbing some hardware ID of a device and then charging money for a license keys somehow still the way to go for some small utility (eg window management app like Rectangle) if you want to sell to users outside of the Mac app store?
I speak it without an accent, but not at Ph.D level.
As to home projects, that's pretty much all I do, these days, ever since I "retired"*, in 2017.
I'm quite good at what I do, and generally achieve every goal that I set, but, since I'm forced to work alone, the scope needs to be kept humble. I used to work as part of a worldwide team, doing some pretty interesting stuff, on a much larger scale.
But what's important to me, is that I do a good job on whatever I do. Everything I write, I ship, support, and document, even if it isn't that impressive. The bringing a project to completion, is a big part of the joy that I get from the work.
* Was basically forced into it