That is simply not true. Most artists do what they do without ever seeing any money for it.
How much media that the average person choses to consume is this 'free use' media? How much is media that artists chose to make money from?
By the way, I do know a lot of artists that just give their work away for free. Hell, any Burn is just a bunch of free art that usually gets lit on fire or destroyed after a week. There's also graffiti art which is uncompensated and usually painted over within a month.
I challenge you to ask 10 creative people in your life if they would stop doing whatever it is they do if they had a billion dollars.
No, probably not. Isn't it a shame we live in a world where we have the technology to automate all meaningful production, but people still need to justify their existence through often meaningless labor?
That said, I know artists that make the bare minimum to survive, on purpose, so they have more time to focus on art.
It's more about the viability of making any kind of living from one's creative work, not motivation to create. (Though for creative works with large upfront costs, eg films, ROI motivation is relevant for backers.)
