Your argument perfectly applies to 'meaning' as well, as companies increasingly market their products as life styles, communities, families etc. Someone can focus on meaning and still fall into that exact same trap, which I don't think is helpful either.

I think the problem lies with work. Increasingly, people have to work more for less in order to survive. They have to squeeze more out of meager savings, worry about their health and often have little to no time to actually explore their lives or their communities. Suburbanization has made this aspect worse by making it harder to leave the suburbs and placing people into small bubbles of slowly fermenting restlessness.