So it's good for some fields other than performers?

I've met plenty of stock brokers and engineers that skate by on credentials - I try to avoid them professionally because they tend to produce workplaces with exceedingly high demands and low compensation due to the drain they introduce on the system... but they continue to exist.

Heck, HN has many time had discussion on C-level folks who basically revolving door their way from failure to failure and still get huge golden parachutes when they sign on to a new company even though their performance history is trash.

Even fields that require performance can have strong networking requirements. Academia, software, traditional engineering, etc. One’s reputation is rarely purely or even strongly reputation based