Hey! I enjoyed you talking about side projects, but it might be worth expanding on the other benefits of this - namely dealing with technical debt. Tech debt is not a thing I think you've really spent time on (if I'm remembering correctly) and side projects can be a good way of trying to produce proof of concept work which might help eliminate tech debt. The new chat system is a good example of that, where instead of spending time working on the existing system and trying to document it properly you rewrote it using newer tech not just to Be Fancy And Cool but to help eliminate the issues you were having with the old system.
I feel that perhaps explaining what tech debt is and how a development team should be aware of it and actively trying to fight against it would also help explain to people the 'why are you building this instead of fixing bug X or bug Y?' thing.
(Also because tech debt is a very important thing to be aware of but isn't something you're super aware of as a more junior developer, so it's a useful talk for any new/aspiring developers who might be listening)
Refugee's comments