You should prioritize yourself. If you’re recognized for your hard work, then all the power to you. People are just skeptic because most of the time, no matter how hard you work, you never get any valuable recognition for it.
If you don’t feel recognized, it’s still valid to do work that you believe will contribute to your professional growth - as a way to prepare yourself for the next step.
Lol that article might be brilliant, but it’s not funny at all to someone without a post doctorate in pure mathematics. I for one was completely lost when reading it, and your comment gave me some understanding of it