[GoFrackOnCobalt]

But couldn't optimizing advertising on some website for a shitload of money lead one to develop a novel algorithm or modeling framework that had applicability to diverse fields including alleviating starvation?

Is culture important? Is The Big Lebowski frivolous? Is Old Navy Performance Fleece is a waste of time? Should the cast of SNL all quit and start learning R? Do those folks not pay taxes and thus support most academic research?

I just have to challenge the assumption that it is obvious which things are important, moral, and noble and which things are frivolous. Perhaps in hindsight those things are clear. History will be the judge, as a wise man once said. Or maybe he wasn't wise. Or maybe he made some unwise decisions and learned from them. Or maybe it doesn't matter, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because the secret to happiness is thinking happy thoughts.