I've spent some time around Tim, my impression is that he's a nerd, who got very lucky with a side project. You are correct that he has not avoided getting wealthy off that, but high level meetings with Tim tended to get distracted by fixing whatever is not working on Tim's laptop or playing with some demo he's built that (Newsflash) doesn't change the world and is soon forgotten. He's now simply a wealthier nerd.

I chose a poor example. Do you really believe there’s no such thing as altruism?

Altruism exists, but it very rarely makes you money. And that's really only ok if you already have a good amount of money and can afford to give some away, or work for nothing.