It’s definitely not just you. Look at someone like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy, and Damien Hirst. It’s about acting a part, branding, connections, and in some ideal cases talent and originality can even play a role.
Warhol and Hirst's work were both commentaries on this. As were Christo and Jeanne-Claude's, though theirs focused a little more on the role the "self."
I mean, they’re commentaries that also just happen to make them spectacularly wealthy.
So true, I remember Damien Hirst talking about this openly. Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman also speak to this.