> I don't see how this doesn't equally apply to the pre-AI economy. The results there have been quite stark, with the "entrepreneurs" ending up far better off than the "employees".

This is wrong, in most cases the entrepreneur is worse off than the employees, since the entrepreneur spent all his savings on the projects and the employees walks away with all the money they got from their salaries.

And even when it is fully funded by external investors most of the time the founder just gets to keep the salary since the company fails and become worthless.

The only time the entrepreneur is better off is when the company succeeds and becomes big, but that is rare, most of the time it is better to be an employee.

It depends on risk preferences.

Risk seekers should be entrepreneurs.

Risk averse people, probably, should not.