The same problem exists in socialism

You need to convince people what you’re doing is worth doing. Whether that is economically or societally

I'm sorry, but this has nothing to do with capitalism. If we were under a king, you'd still have to schmooze the king. Socialism may give you money to feed yourself, but it won't pay you to do science. An economic system doesn't prevent you from needing interpersonal skills.

It absolutely is like this in every corporate setting.

The key difference here is that if you don't play the game at TechCo Incorporated and spend the next ten years just entering data and being passed over, people will say "That's corporate life for you" and give you support and sympathy.

If you don't play the game in your academic field then you're "wasting enough money to buy a house" and that tends to raise people's ire or at least interest. It brings to mind all kinds of negative stereotypes in your own mind and makes you ashamed to be someone who doesn't want to play the social game.

If you want to be in any creative field like art or literature, you have to be able to run a social media business. It's like 80% PR and 20% the creative work you actually want to do.

Across the board, we have let people who are primarily motivated by accumulating wealth and power accumulate wealth and power unchecked, and then make all the rules for how everything around them works.

These are the last people you want making the rules if you desire sane and sustainable social environments.

The best thing we could collectively do for ourselves is strip and block these kinds of people from positions of authority on the sheer basis that they seek it so eagerly, tell them to their faces WHY, tell them they can't have it back and that they can ONLY have it back when they stop wanting it so badly, no matter HOW HARD they cry about it and then treat them with the same kind of disdain they've treated people who don't want to play by THEIR rules for centuries.