The many and the few

In how many areas is it found that people "prefer to gain their bread with the many rather than subsist on the good opinion of the few." (Cervantes, in Don Quixote)

I know this is often true in medicine, where the thinking doctor, who wishes to promote good health, avoid unneeded therapies, and focus his (or her) attention on cases that can derive the most benefit, will find himself left out in the cold by the others who give in to processing patients as in a factory, looking for what can make money rather than what can make health, and pursue all possible tests and therapies (or avoid all possible of the same depending on the payment scheme's reward system).