> People still play chess and go and StarCraft. People do what people want to do.

Poor analogy. Because math is one of those job-hobby type hybrids where the job may be enjoyable but you still need the academic infrastructure to do it on a modern level, both because you need funding and you need others to motivate you to keep to a certain standard.

Job-hobby hybrids like this are not the same as running and Starcraft where you can do it by yourself and still reap a lot of benefit from it in the same way. Hobbyists might still do math but if it were just up to the hobbyists, we wouldn't have the level of discovery we have today.

I think the whole point is that we are no longer at the top of the totem pole, cognition-wise. At least not in certain areas. Better get used to your goals being self-driven. If your sense of self relies on being the best you've got a problem.