I tend to think this is only true for activities where the enjoyment/experiential part of the activity is separated from the "meta business game" of the activit

I tend to think this is only true for activities where the enjoyment/experiential part of the activity is separated from the "meta business game" of the activity to a large enough degree. While this may be true for a lot of hobbies, I don't think it's always the case. If you love to play a sport, the meta game of being a pro athlete is very close to the part that a player loves, which is playing the actual sport. The sport itself is the main focus, everything else like coaching and contracts is window dressing compared to actual playing skills. If you love to cook elaborate dishes for your family from various world cuisines, you should probably consider the meta game before you try to become a chef or open your own diner or restaurant. Do you like thinking about ingredient prices versus dish prices? Marginal efficiency of how a dish is cooked and constructed? Seating layouts and service rotations? How to design, implement, maintain, and update a profitable menu, etc. If all you have is passion, and you're not able or willing to closely examine the step-by-step process for how your passion translates to cash, and how that cash makes its way to your bank account, then of course you won't enjoy a hobby as a career or business venture. You need to actually enjoy the business aspects directly if you want to be happy with a hobby-turned-career.