For some people external validation is not very important and they genuinely love and enjoy the pursuit of knowledge and have little interest in what others think of them.
Sure everyone requires some degree of external validation and there is a hierarchy in every group but all is not vanity.
I don’t think you’re wholly wrong, but if you look at longitudinal surveys of students, it presents a less rosy view. The majority select their primary motivation as getting “very financially successful.”
Now those surveys are undergrads, but considering that grad school has become more common path, I don’t see any reason why grad students would be of a wholly different mental makeup.
I don’t see it as a judgment - some people are motivated entirely by money and external validation like status, some see these things as less important than pleasure, discovery or knowledge. Perhaps those seeking money are in the majority.
Both types of people are useful but I feel it is highly reductive and simplistic to reduce the world to one motivation for all people.
1) The main point I was trying to convey is that the distribution of the types you outline may be getting skewed in one direction as part of a broader cultural shift. I think that matters, and may support the other point
2) I’ve elaborated elsewhere [1] but I think it’s a mistake to pretend there’s a relatively large group of people who aren’t motivated by status. They may be motivated by a different kind of prestige, but it’s still (at least in part) a status play.
Sure everyone requires some degree of external validation and there is a hierarchy in every group but all is not vanity.