It is a narrative mostly driven by artists. Your value is mostly in the knowledge and experience you gained.

In case of artists, them being able to make a living was an aberration to the historical pattern, specifically predicated on creation being hard and reproduction being easy. Before 20th century or so it used to be hard/hard, now with GenAI we're at easy/easy and neither can sustain them. Add to that their idealism and that is where it comes from. The "you can become anyone you want" and "follow your dreams" we all were told did not help either.