"It's completely up to the buyer, not the artist, to decide whether the art is valuable."
No. No. No. It is up to the artist to set the price on their work, it is only up to the buyer as to if they will accept it. Even auctions have a set reserve price. It is not healthy or good for people to trick, coerce, or socially pressure artists into giving their art away for free. If an artist wants to give away their art for free, then they should do it without being pushed into it by a dangling carrot of "you could win". If they want to price their art higher than the market can bear, that's their choice too.
"It's completely up to the buyer, not the artist, to decide whether the art is valuable."
No. No. No. It is up to the artist to set the price on their work, it is only up to the buyer as to if they will accept it. Even auctions have a set reserve price. It is not healthy or good for people to trick, coerce, or socially pressure artists into giving their art away for free. If an artist wants to give away their art for free, then they should do it without being pushed into it by a dangling carrot of "you could win". If they want to price their art higher than the market can bear, that's their choice too.