You said it right, Derek. If there is ever to be any meaning in any art, it must be packaged in 99% entertainment value. Take a wood carving or painting. Convey the same meaning, the same theme, the same characters in a shoddy painting and you will find no such painting can survive. The irony is that entertainment value alone is widely received as meaningful. This is how we've arrived at having plastic brick facade on the face of buildings. The purpose of human conditioning is to bring civilization into a unity, a melt of acceptance of common culture. Entertainment is the easiest and most comfortable way of doing that, because it is comfortable. The purpose of the artist is to bring something new.
In the past, media production has been too costly to experiment with meaning. But it's not that way now. So, technically I have no idea what I'm doing. Lighting, sound, set design, color, etc, is completely new to me. But meaning is the artist's choice to attempt to convey, and the receiver's choice to attempt to find. Clearly, you and I have made little connection in that regard, which is excellent input for me and well received.