They are very clever That's all you need to know. "Why are all these very clever people doing X when they could be doing Y instead??" has a very simple answer:

They are very clever That's all you need to know. "Why are all these very clever people doing X when they could be doing Y instead??" has a very simple answer: they've used their big brains to figure out that X is, in fact, a better and more sensible thing to do than Y. That's all. The powers that shape public perception of what constitutes meaningful work might not agree.