I think it's due to software people often liking to build things, be it software or something else.
For me, it's that, but also something simple, concrete and long-lasting.
At work, I sit in front of a computer, wrangling with something as abstract as "information" through 147 abstraction layers, standing on the shoulders of software and hardware high-tech representing certainly $trillions of investment. In some ways, it's the pinnacle of human achievement, but it also means that you're but a very very small cog in the whole machinery.
In contrast to that, woodworking with handtools is something where the tools have existed for hundreds of years, if not millenia, the techniques are largely millenia old, and whatever I do is something physical I can see and touch, and won't be obsolete in a few years.
Woodworking and building things in general also requires similar related process such as "debugging", but I find the debugging to be a bit more fun when working on physical objects because you can visualize more easily and use physical intuitions.
I guess it calms you down after a stressful day.
Nothing relax you more than hand planning a crooked board and making a simple dovetailed box.