Is making games in a short amount of time actually worth your time?

I love challenges, and game development. So doing game developing challenges sync’s perfectly with me. Sort of like a game jam but for myself. However, recently i was thinking, are they actually worth your time? Everybody says how productive they are to your learning, but for me it doesn’t seem to help as much. So are they really worth your time doing? When i could be learning more doing else what.

I personally think so, as a builder I am constantly making new “mini” games to practice my skills and improve, I suppose it might be different for a programmer, but I think it is not a waste of time.