It's implied, I think, that the set of folks doing academia for pleasure are excluded from the analysis. In America, at least, the prevailing cultural attitude

It's implied, I think, that the set of folks doing academia for pleasure are excluded from the analysis. In America, at least, the prevailing cultural attitude is "you do something to get ahead or you are falling behind". It's deeply solipsistic and bad, but it's safe to say that's the default reading for media here.