wouldn't that depend on how cool the shit it?

The point is that how "cool" something is is supposed to track the potential value there. In practice it doesn't always (carbon fiber decals are a thing), but that just means they're doing it wrong.

The hunter will proudly show you his collection of butterflies, all nicely pinned and displayed in proper boxes. Proper boxes are very important, dontcha know?

I'd find that very strange, but could happen. And if so, you can confirm your suspicion that they weren't getting anything interesting done. Still seems worth asking to me.

I have a feeling we have different images in mind.

It seems like you see me as implicitly asking "why do you guys keep making pieces instead of going on an adventure!?!?!" and answering with "you see epic adventure, but what they see is the necessity of making their pieces. If they didn't have to get their pieces made, and if there actually was epic adventure to have, of course they'd do that instead. It's that they don't agree with you".

I agree. That's why they do what they do - 'twas never a mystery to me. I see room for that and epic and lucrative anaconda fighting adventures. Or for fools chasing that fantasy and running off into the jungle to starve. Or all three and more.

I have a couple points here even before getting into what happens when you quit and seek adventure.

1) "you must produce the pieces". Really? You sure sure? What number do you put on that confidence? How you think you know?

Often people get caught up running from what seems like a "must" only for it to turn out to be not mission critical. Literal hunger makes for a perfect example. When people fast for a few days for the first time, it often really changes the way they think about the hunger signal. It's no longer "You must eat" and instead becomes more of just a suggestion.

2) "I'm not convinced adventuring is worth it". Of course not. You haven't done your research.

And from your mindset - if you really must produce the pieces, then you didn't need to. If I offer you a chance of a million dollars or a sure $500, but the mob is gonna kill you if you don't pay off your $500 debt, there's little point in asking what the chance is if you already know it isn't "all but guaranteed".

However, even if it's only a 15% chance, you're losing out on an expected $149,500. If there's any chance that 1) not producing the pieces isn't an immediate game ender or 2) it's not completely impossible to sell your chance for much more than $500, then you should probably at least ask what your chance of winning the million is before settling for $500.

So what I see is not "and adventure that is sure to pay off in excess and yeah it might be uncomfortable, but it's not like there's any real downside so don't be stupid", but rather "these people aren't being careful to consider their confidence levels when it's crucial, and so they are going to end up stuck as pieceworkers even if there's a way to have much much more"