I generally agree with the first part of your post but I feel you have a weird hang up on artists. Most artist didn't go to school for art, most artists are simply self taught.

The bare minimum cost of being an artist is a pencil and paper. And although their way of combating it with appeals to copyright is regressive. It comes from a place of desperation because at the end of the day they are laborers. And I've come to find that many tech people tend to diminish artists as laborers.