For the vast majority of my life my only goals were gettimg academic satisfaction and doing unproductive stuff in the free time to get temporary pleasure. No end goal whatsoever.
The question you have to consider is what the purpose of life is? Is it impressive achievements? Because a lot of people who have done that are depressed and look back with regret as well.
IMO its just happiness. Do the things you enjoy that will don’t harm those around you and allow you to properly enjoy the future as well. If academic satisfaction and “unproductive stuff” meets those goals, why worry about third parties? Do you want to match those achievements for your own enjoyment, or is it to avoid feeling shame? If it’s the shame, consider whether that shame is meaningful because of your internal desires or of it’s being pushed on you by societal expectations.
If it’s internal, then recognize that and start taking steps to meet your internal goals. If it’s external, try to let it go and understand that societal expectations are not laws to live by.
Tbh it was a bit of both for me. The API access was one thing, but the response to the backlash was revealing towards his views. The protest against the API access was focused on business, the backlash to Spez’s actions in response was focused on him.