Or rather, people have the urge to survive and will do whatever it takes.

Whether that’s the hard labor of small groups subsistence level existing, for the reward of not starving and suffering the elements. Or putting sandwiches in a bag for a one room apartment and a cell phone.

Fairly certain wages existed before guns.

But “end of a pointy stick” lacks gravitas.

Probably because the people who relaxed would soon be murdered by a more organized group with better nutrition, numbers, or weapons.

I think you missed the part just prior to slavery where we had to work to avoid starving to death naked and alone exposed the elements.

I mean, it’s a common trope in story telling to use an outsider protagonist (from the perspective of the people in the story) to allow world building and immersion in the world/culture your story is set within.

So, the “guy with amnesia”, “orphan kid”, “dude in a foreign land”, “time traveler”, “new person in the organization”, “certain types of isekai” tropes all exist to tell a story where the reader/viewer get to learn as they go.

Fairly popular in historical fiction, fantasy, and many other genera.

It makes “Shogun”, “The Last Samurai”, “Marco Polo”, “Big Trouble in Little China”, and others like them more accessible to “Western” aka “white guy” demographics.

I don’t really see an issue with it, when done well.

It was actually enjoyable, if highly derivative of “Treasure Island in space”, aka Treasure Planet.

I loved it as a kid (when it came out, loved the robots and the setting) but it was critically not well liked in general. So, I don’t think it holds up after the nostalgia wears off.

Though, it could easily be remade with a more coherent plot and cool special effects. Lol, could be out of the skill set of whomever they have making re-boots now, given the crap I watched on Disney+ lately.