Put another way: Singers who aren't good enough to make it on their own form large idol groups (eg: AKB 48) to sell themselves, while those who are become stars on their own or form small bands with others of similar success.

Or to put it another way: Ground meat is great, but the components thereof by themselves are generally regarded as waste.

This whole train of metaphors is just bizarre and wrong. Singers who aren't good enough to make it on their own are never heard of or discussed. Ground meat made from poor quality meat is poor quality ground meat, and people do, in fact, grind the good stuff to make good stuff.

And I'm sure that plenty of people who could start a business on their own could start a business with the help and support of like-minded partners, and might even be better off for it. I'm not sure where we get the idea that founders must be lone-wolf savants.

>Singers who aren't good enough to make it on their own are never heard of or discussed.

Correct. I've definitely heard of AKB 48 and other idol groups; I have never heard anything concerning any specific member of one other than randomly showing up on a cheap variety show long after they retired ("graduated") from showbiz.

>Ground meat made from poor quality meat is poor quality ground meat

But it's generally preferable to the poor quality component meats, which was what I tried to allude to.

>people who could start a business on their own could start a business with the help and support of like-minded partners,

People with the chops to become founders on their own can also become co-founders joining with other similar people.

People without the chops can't become founders without joining others to become co-founders.

Basically: All apples are fruits, but not all fruits are apples.

Cooperation is difficult and does not scale well. One selfish person can act selfishly alone. But one cooperative person first needs to find someone else to cooperate with... and the other person also needs to have compatible skills and values... so it is often easier for the cooperative person to just give up, and work to make someone else rich.

And the more difficult project you have, the more extreme this gets. If it is something that most people could do, it is easy for the cooperative people to find each other. It if it something that only one person in a thousand can do, the one-in-a-thousand cooperative person will have a huge problem finding the rest of the team.