“I'm basically giving myself a permanent vacation from being BDFL”

Have you tried reaching software engineers on vacation? “Sorry I’ll be camping on some rock on Mars where I’ll have spotty internet access so....”

That’s the point.

Whenever they say that they either mean they only have 2G connection or they somehow managed to get a Gbit satellite phone so they could be online several hours a day from the woods

Not me. When I say that, I really mean it! I don't even have cellular service at home and internet is coming from a 2-man WISP capped at 5mbps. Makes for a fun conversation when a user says the app is "slow" to load...it loads faster than HN at my house ;).

Am I one of the few that is away from work when on vacation? I don't even bring my work phone unless I'm more than an hour's drive from my house.

When I'm on vacation, I'm working on me. Not for the company.

Yeah vacation isn't work time

It depends. My experience has been that contractors usually don't mind working on vacation while on a cruise whereas salaried people are like "I'm dead; don't reach me."

I think it depends on the type of person and on the type of job. As an independent contractor, you're more likely to have to at least be reachable while on vacation, due to the nature of the work, whereas a company with full-time employees is likely in a better position to have people go off the grid for a bit. That said, personally, even as a former contractor, I want NOTHING to do with work while I'm on vacation—to me, that's the entire point.