I treat playing piano as a creative outlet these days as a small hobby, not profession. Not much different than say, playing video games. I actually have very little interest in becoming better these days, mostly due to forgoing lessons / daily practice long ago.

That said, I’ve created compositions that are really cool on occasional boredom, which is probably something many “accomplished pianists” don’t even do. And that is a lot cooler than performing challenging pieces, if you ask me.

I also don’t think that more challenging pieces actually necessarily sound better / distinct. There are beginner level songs that are surprisingly good.

My music teacher also told me that there’s good and bad practice. If you continuously do bad practice / habits, you get worse, not better.