Things people intrinsically care about have an easier-to-clear viability bar.

For a thing to be viable for a given user, its expected cost has to be less than its expected value.

Cost and value here are not just financial considerations but also things like opportunity cost, frustration, meaning.

When someone cares intrinsically about something, their "expected value" for it is higher, meaning it can tolerate a higher expected cost and still be viable.

If the person doesn't have the fuzzy things like "mission", "principles" etc lifting up the expected value of a given thing, then the expected value becomes principally about a cold, hard financial calculation.

Mission-driven people are more willing to put up with challenges to achieve their goal than mercenaries.

People are not necessarily intrinsically mission driven or mercenary, it's highly context dependent!