But this is precisely how you get these large wealth gaps in society. Not like the 1% vs the bottom 50%, but the bottom 50% vs the top 30%.

That "high efficiency" is actually "less humans in the loop".

Compare something like money managing to car manufacturing. A team of money managers might clear $1B+ in revenue for a year with a team of 200. To clear $1B a yr selling cars, you need workers and supply chains that are tens of thousands of workers deep. It's the very inefficiency of manufacturing goods that makes it so attractive to workers.

This problem is inherent and intractable, but the natural order is to whither away the inefficient parts and only keep the most functional ones.

For those reading closely, this is also how you get a begrudged "coastal elite" and populist presidents like Trump (tariffs, anti-immigrants, state backed industry) elected. They want suffering for the offices of 200 people bringing in billions, and a return of the massive factories and supply chains with tens of thousands being the ones brining in billions.