Very interesting observations, Igor. Indeed, the art gameshows fall into the category of what Guy Debord called the society of the spectacle. Pop culture is full of hot air. It's vacuous, superficial, and tribal. We ignore reality and fixate on images and symbols, many of which give rise to mere "First World Problems."
In other articles, I trace the pyramid social structure to ethology (to dominance hierarchies in groups of social animals), so I agree this is much older than capitalism (link below).
Indeed, my main criticism of conservatism is that conservatives provides mere rhetorical cover for a rationalization of that sheer animality: conservative economic and social policies conserve precisely our baser animal inclinations and their effects, using religious traditions to cover up for social Darwinism and for various prejudices (patriarchy, racism, authoritarian dominance, etc).
The "winner takes all" effect is certainly plausible. It reminds me of the confirmation bias. We add extra importance to what's available to our memory, and we naturally dismiss and forget about what's not immediately apparent. Pop culture celebrates the artists who are the grand winners, and by ignoring the many losers, we tend to think the losers don't matter. That attitude fuels piracy. We don't value digital art so much because most of it's produced by artists that don't rise (or sink) to the level of the social spectacle.
