I mean, I think the best way to start with this is to use a word other than "maintenance." That's not really the most sexy word if you really want people to get behind it. Furthermore it just suggests that the work is keeping something as good as it was from the beginning. Filling in holes, giving it a coat of paint every now and then.
What it really should be called is "refinement." The innovation ends up being incredibly crude but it gets the job done. How can we build on that, make it better and less coarse than it was? How can we make it more efficient?
Oh, come on.
Remarketing words is buzz, and we really shouldn't encourage it. This is why we're having that ridiculous title-bubble as well, Senior Site Reliability Engineer. Sure, whatever. /sysadmin, who's been doing sysadmin, devops, backend dev, and sre stuff and sometimes do pretty css flies away/
"Quality of life" improvements would be better. People can motivate themselves if it improves their quality of life. We do daily maintenance, life itself is mostly maintenance, but you can make it worthwhile, and sometimes fun, by focusing that on improving your quality of life and time.
What it really should be called is "refinement." The innovation ends up being incredibly crude but it gets the job done. How can we build on that, make it better and less coarse than it was? How can we make it more efficient?