“Do we want to excite and encourage students? Or do we want to prepare them for their profession?”
Phrased this way, it’s clearly a false dichotomy. What we most likely want is for students to be excited, encouraged, and motivated by their own steps on the path as they prepare for their profession (or for their subsequent explorations when they graduate).
What does it mean, then, if that which excites students is not the “real” stuff of the work they will be doing later in their studies or after graduating? Alternatively, what does it mean, if the work they will be doing later might not require the preparatory tasks we are assigning them? The former seems like a “bait and switch,” and the latter seems like inappropriate rigor.
Even in the absence of an answer that makes sense for everyone, we ought to notice the mismatch of fire and function when we see it in individual students. When we do, perhaps we create an opportunity for fruitful, generative conversation.