[tarakat]

I think of it as art itself being the goal.

While artists may hope their art will also fulfill other goals, I wouldn't want to live in a world without art, where those goals are instead fulfilled by expending equivalent effort to turn the crank of some machine. I suspect neither would the author of this article.

[boredemployee]

I agree. I often see the top 1% who are really successful in art, using art as the means rather than the end. note how mediocre their art is versus other great skills they have like networking (i.e.: current pop music) with very rare exceptions.