I don't have to imagine... I've been there... Worked as an auto repair tech for 8 years, bored out of my mind, looking for a better, more challenging job.
Now I'm a welder/fabricator at a small shop, huge challenges, always something different.
Don't sell yourself short, from talking here adn reading your post I get the feeling of how hard you push yourself, the need to do, to achieve, to learn. You can't get to where you really need to be without building the foundation first.
The days of Tesla and Einstein, of learning by doing, success and failure, are gone. Build yourself like a building, whether house or sky scraper.. you have to have a solid foundation.