I see a similar argument from conservative relatives sometimes too. That work is like forced purpose for the nations layabouts. I don't know how common that is - some people will just do nothing I guess, but I think most people have some kind of hobby or interest they'd pursue if they had the time/means. Maybe I'm biased. Most of the folks in my family make and fix things. When they retire, they step up how much they fix/make. I've heard a couple of them say they don't know how they got anything done when they were working all day. Years ago now, when my job had no work for me for a few weeks, I stepped up my oil painting to around eight hours a day. Even now, whenever I get downtime I try to put it to use (my post history is full of those projects). Retired folks are often much more involved in local government, charities, and nonprofits, not because older people are inherently better but because they have the time, and they don't have to focus just on doing profitable things anymore.
I think I might agree a bit on where our individual purpose comes from? And this is wild speculation on my part, just something I've noticed as I try to understand what motivates people who seem to work much differently than I do. It feels like the default around here is to aspire to owning stuff, boats and cars and luxury toys. It seems like the folks who put their ambitions towards charities, helping kids, conserving land, etc, often had something in their life that snagged them and made them care about stuff outside that default. Like, someone makes a ton of money playing sports but uses it to fund youth programs - that person got caught by something outside that default, they found a purpose. Their teammate who just buys a mansion, maybe they never did. I don't know if that makes sense.