Not to disrespect your theory, but basic profit on usefulness or popularity is a very, very, very bad idea. Art is not necessarily useful, nor should it have to be popular. That encourages groupthink. That means that if you're an artist with a brilliant idea that's never been done before, even if you're blazingly ahead of your time you won't get anything unless you cater to the masses.
You mention open source, which is a perfect example. Open source projects are rarely good. Firefox is perhaps the fourth best browser on the market, after Chrome, Opera, and Safari. OpenOffice is terrible. They're popular because most people lack enough knowledge of usability to understand just how bad they are, but they're not very good. At most they're functional.
Patronage does not work in the public sector. That's what private sectors are best for, actually: the people with money to pay for musicians are much more likely to have good taste in what they become patrons of. That suddenly makes it a matter of personal taste, which is a more effective model than relying on the masses, who are almost universally wrong in their choices.
You mention open source, which is a perfect example. Open source projects are rarely good. Firefox is perhaps the fourth best browser on the market, after Chrome, Opera, and Safari. OpenOffice is terrible. They're popular because most people lack enough knowledge of usability to understand just how bad they are, but they're not very good. At most they're functional.
Patronage does not work in the public sector. That's what private sectors are best for, actually: the people with money to pay for musicians are much more likely to have good taste in what they become patrons of. That suddenly makes it a matter of personal taste, which is a more effective model than relying on the masses, who are almost universally wrong in their choices.