How do I make peace with a job that became negotiation?

You can align a whole team around a design direction, and you are tired of how much of the work turned out to be negotiation rather than craft. That fatigue is real and worth honoring. You trained your eye and your hand, and now most days you spend your voice instead. But aligning people is not the opposite of craft; it is a craft you built without noticing. Getting a room full of different minds to move as one is delicate, skilled work that few can do. Missing the quiet, hands-on making is fair. So is recognizing that what you do now has its own worth. Keep one place where you still make something directly, even a small side project that is only yours. Let it feed the part of you the negotiation cannot. You do not have to resent the diplomacy or give up the craft. Hold both, and the tiredness eases into something more like balance.