I spent over a decade doing circuit design and I can corroborate your points. Chip design is maddening! One of the most interesting differences between software and hardware engineering is how many blogs and writing on the web you can find about software. You can almost self teach a masters in CS through online blogs and various postings! The only writing you find online about hardware is either patent's or IEEE white-papers.

There is still something magical when a new chip design comes back from the fab and boots up!