Agreed the finance "layer" of the world today is important and can have large positive/negative effects on the "real" part of the economy. I just don't think it's part of the foundation. One thought experiment would be to imagine the world without finance: could we still eat? have places to sleep at night? Raise kids? Heck yes. Now instead imagine a world without food or shelter or babies, or the ability to make them. We'd be doomed. Also, humans lived millions of years without finance and can again in the future if really needed. We can't live without food production/consumption. Foundation elements are revealed real quick in these kinds of comparisons, I think.

Again, not to dismiss finance and capital markets, investment, etc. as non-useful. It's just that they are a very modern and recent invention, at best one particular tool, and only an abstract layer on top of the more "real" parts of human existance.