I think you are conflating mattering and making money. You can matter a lot, generate a lot of social good and not make money.

This article is just about the making money part.

I think this is right. For example, GPS is tremendously useful, but you can use it for free. Similarly, while there are commercial weather services, a lot of people access the ad-supported versions[0] or get it from their government’s weather agency.

[0]: which obviously provide some revenue, but much less than the value provided.