> Lots of doctors and automotive engineers just do their job and then come home, in fact most employees don't come home and continue to work on semi work related things on their spare time.

And perhaps they chose the wrong profession. Perhaps they come home and think to themselves "gee, I wonder how my life would have been if I chose art school like I wished instead of engineering like my parents encouraged me.". Ideally people should work on jobs they (at least tangentially) enjoy.

> But what even is passion?

Enjoying what you do. A constant eagerness to experiment, learn, and build something. Passionate people will always be ahead of their peers. Because learning or practicing that activity makes them happy they are more inclined to spend their time honing their skills. And they spend their time practicing that activity not because of some "existential dread related to one's job or position", but precisely the opposite: they enjoy doing it.

I believe encouraging people to pursue carriers in domains they enjoy is a general good advice. The article touches on programming specifically because there is a current trend / hype to push people toward programming.