> You just think that altruism could function just as well

Not at all. I'm no proponent of altruism.

I proposed crowdfunding as the alternative. As in, entire nations worth of people investing money to make something happen. Decentralized investors.

Once intellectual work is done, the value of the intangible product trends towards zero. Selling things that have infinite supply makes no economic sense. Society needs to find a way to pay creators before the work is done. Creations must be treated as investments rather than products.