But their contributions are not valued. You can spend a year working on something cool and when you finally show it to the world the most you get is a couple upvotes on Hackernews and people using it for maybe 10-15 minutes and then never again. That’s the reality for many people.

Exactly, that exact drive to feel helpful and needed is why dogs are trainable and men are depressed. It's why the old wolf who can't catch their own food anymore leaves the pack to die alone, cold, and hungry.

That craving is a deeper more primalistic emotion than hunger or thirst for many people (and animals) - boiling it down to "muh capitalism" is just disingenuous.