Art is that deep, and moreso in some areas than others. Star Wars and centuries of faith based paintings have rich meaning imbued into the end product. All the star wars clones that dropped the meaningful parts didn't succeed.
There's a whole class of landscape and still life paintings which have mundane subjects that express geometry in deep, layered technique. The clues in how it was constructed and are there if you look for them. The appreciation of which can change a painting you thought was 10% interesting on first glance into 110% interesting with a deeper insight.
I agree though, painting what you see is a great way to suceed now.
There's a whole class of landscape and still life paintings which have mundane subjects that express geometry in deep, layered technique. The clues in how it was constructed and are there if you look for them. The appreciation of which can change a painting you thought was 10% interesting on first glance into 110% interesting with a deeper insight.
I agree though, painting what you see is a great way to suceed now.