[Stunting]

"There is literally zero reward for hard work. It's actually more likely to hurt than help you because original scholarship or novel insights is definitionally more dissimilar to existing things than low effort derivative spam."

I use social media quite effectively within my industry circles to promote myself and stay relevant. It's a grind, but 100% get a ROI in the form of brand awareness leading to more work opportunities.

I disagree that the formula "make something good and reap rewards" has ever been effective outside of lucky breaks. If the reward of making something good is not enough for an individual, then extra effort is required in the form of market research, promotion, and sales.

The stuff you're seeing seem to exploit the back half, but I have always found that making something good and doing any marketing at all has huge benefits.