As someone who did phone helpdesk, then deskside support, then server support over a 10 year period and then, after the 2008 recession, moved into programming for another 10 years I would agree that support was the more enjoyable and simple role. You had to learn new tech, but not at the rate you do in programming, plus each day felt different as you were presented with different problems/people. In programming it seems like same stuff different day and it gets old.

I will say that this doesn’t have to be so black and white. A helpdesk role can have progression into desktop and server support and that brings fiscal increases and I didn’t feel any of those positions were overly complex in my life like programming is.

Slight caveat though, I haven’t had to interact people in a helpdesk sense for years now and with the advent of social media and the inflation of ego’s and narcissism in general it might now be that such a role is now less enjoyable. Perhaps your experience is more recent.