Does cooking food serve any purpose beyond mass producing food for restaurants to sell?
Well, yes? If you want to write code that isn't useful to anyone and just gives you warm fuzzies, go for it. I've done plenty of that. But it's exceptionally selfish to try to forbid technological improvements so that you can get paid to work exactly how you want to.
Does cooking food serve any purpose beyond mass producing food for restaurants to sell?
Should we ban industrial agriculture so that you can feel more proud of your rooftop garden?
Especially if it comes from Carmack, a guy who doesn't need to pay rent any more and can in fact live the rest of his life without concern for producing value, etc etc. He is currently doing exactly what he wants, just because he wants it. And that happens to be VR stuff, currently, afaik. And that's his choice. So when he speaks deeply condescending about other people doing exactly what they want ("retro computing is so delightful") it definitely comes from a different place as "hey I just want to pay my rent".
how can one exist in modern society without being an exchange value in the capitalist political economy?
linux is where it is because it is able to be a critical part of said capitalist political economy. even if you want to be a FOSS contributor all your life, you need someone to figure out the "economy" part of it.
food is a false equivalence in this case.