Whilst I agree with a lot of what you say, this part:
> We also write tons of useless papers, to justify that we are productive with this money.
doesn't seem to be a logical part of your argument. Writing useless papers is not a form of insurance nor proof that work is being done. It's rather the end product, what all the 'insurance' is trying to ensure gets done. The fact that academia outputs a torrential flood of useless papers has little relevance to the corporate world where the final product is, hopefully, useful despite sometimes being inefficient to get there. After all companies that produce truly useless outputs do eventually get the rug pulled from underneath them, either by bankruptcy or forced sale.
Yes and no. A scientist should generate knowledge and insight, the scientist must discover things. The only way to prove that to a bureaucracy is through papers. It should not be the end product, but it has become the end product. In any case, it is still insurance, if you publish cited papers, you are safe, even if their contents are useless.
> We also write tons of useless papers, to justify that we are productive with this money.
doesn't seem to be a logical part of your argument. Writing useless papers is not a form of insurance nor proof that work is being done. It's rather the end product, what all the 'insurance' is trying to ensure gets done. The fact that academia outputs a torrential flood of useless papers has little relevance to the corporate world where the final product is, hopefully, useful despite sometimes being inefficient to get there. After all companies that produce truly useless outputs do eventually get the rug pulled from underneath them, either by bankruptcy or forced sale.