Thats not at all a leason I learned during my years with game theory. It sounds like a life-lesson completely orthogonal to game-theory.

And wrong I must add, ignoring people who have made an actuall change in the world (although its true that most people end up making very little difference either way).

There’s room for both pragmatic and idealistic solutions in most cases. Sometimes the rules of the game change on short notice, and being in the right place at the right time makes all the difference.

It is not about playing new games though, but about affecting subtle changes over prolonged periods of time. You can't know the outcome, but you can help steer the right overall direction.

This isn’t true, or is true but much more limited in scope than you’re presenting it.

The ultra-rich spend big money chasing influence and power in order to change cultural norms. And it works.

Covid, and its backlash. changed cultural norms, while the rules of the “game” remained largely untouched.