The problem I see is that the "attention economy"'s end goal is still to be a marketing platform for real, paid products. It won't work in a world where there are no products and everything is an advertising platform - people won't be paying for the "privilege" of seeing ads.

The market has been distorted by VCs and investors who are willing to throw shit tons of money towards anything that "grows" and generates engagement. This pulled the ground out of the model of making products that people pay for - you would make money money (off investors) if you just give away your product than if you make people pay for it. That's how we ended up in the current situation, and there are tons of vested interests (people's entire careers are built on this) in perpetuating the problem even if the system can't ever be sustainable.

The music has to stop at some point though when everything is saturated by advertising. That appears to be now given the current, massive downturn. Investor money is no longer free or easy to come by, so the pendulum will have to swing back to making products funded by its end-customers.