Part of the problem is also that we (at least in capitalist systems have been taught to "worship" growth excessively. Even if I am happy in my 2-bedroom house, I am under pressure to "need" a 3-bedroom house... but it's artificial demand, which creates the psychological construct of scarcity, even when it's not real. Not suggesting "scarcity" isn't real, sometimes but much of the time the articficially created fear of scarcity is greater than the actual scarcity. If we live in a world that's more oriented to "plenty" the need to heard sort of drops away.
What you say-- in the context of our current state of societies-- is absolutely true, though... and will continue to be so, as long as the notion arbitrage exists... long before there were Bitcoin and the like, I used to trade currencies; there will always be people who are looking for ways out that don't involve actual work and production... instead leveraging knowledge for profit.