You may be confusing matters. To a living artist in general the market is not an advantage. The artist is not even an actor on said market, the market operates

You may be confusing matters. To a living artist in general the market is not an advantage. The artist is not even an actor on said market, the market operates totally removed from the artist. Mostly the "well known artists" that you mention are either very very dead or among the chosen (very!) few "contemporaries" that for whatever reason are able to command exorbitant prices. Those artists that you hear about and those that gets any share of any market are an extremely small minority. It is of no help to any artist that there is an art market. However, as to "quantifiable merits and results" that is very applicable to the art scene in general. An artist is above and beyond all else identified by his/her accumulated body of work.