This is confusing cause and effect. Should 80% of middle managers be able to make a living from their work? Politicians? Bankers? Investors? Backend developers

This is confusing cause and effect. Should 80% of middle managers be able to make a living from their work? Politicians? Bankers? Investors? Backend developers? The fact that there's no question that these people are somehow magically worth it, while musicians and artists somehow magically aren't, is a symptom of the covert beliefs that define value, not a cause of them. Realistically this is just a different kind of social credit - and no less brutal than the Chinese kind, even though the values are (somewhat) different.