I've worked on real life painting for weeks, and revisited/revised paintings a few years after originally creating them. I hark back to the old days of 3d, where renders took a few days to even render, and you spent a few weeks getting the scene set up the way you wanted.

And you guys quit after a few hours?

Bah! You're spoiled with faster and faster  technology, and better and better tools. What some people fail to understand, is even though everything else has improved, there are more options and possiblites now, and while that means some tasks are easier, some are now more complex.

Talk to a few real world artists about how long they'bve worked on a painting, or sculpture.. some artists take a few months to create a final work of art.

Or talk to content creators, who spend a few months sometimes creating a poser product. The reward is not the final product, but also the journey along the way and the learning process.

I never throw anything away at all.. hd storage is dirt cheap, and you never know when you will want to take somethng from an old scene, or revisit it.

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.