While I agree with much of what you are saying, I disagree strongly with the last sentence. I think if one feels that a certain career path is petty and selfish, one must make that clear. The reason is that, aggregate over large populations and years of time, societal notions of dignity and respect toward certain professions, and disrespect toward others, have a substantial influence on whether people enter those professions and what kinds of choices they make once engaged in them.

Of course this is a mechanism that goes horribly wrong in some societies, but it's our job to make ours as good as we are able.