I’ve thought about this as well, but my observation ended up going a different direction: work as a category only has higher utility because it’s unfun in some way. Everyone else would rather be doing fun things, but the unfun stuff needed for survival still has to get done somehow. Work generally has higher utility because other people are willing to pay you to do it so they can do the fun things instead.
Off the cuff: perhaps you’ve got it backwards?
I’ve thought about this as well, but my observation ended up going a different direction: work as a category only has higher utility because it’s unfun in some way. Everyone else would rather be doing fun things, but the unfun stuff needed for survival still has to get done somehow. Work generally has higher utility because other people are willing to pay you to do it so they can do the fun things instead.