Only properly educated children knows how to play with good toys.
Grew up in 90s china, clay was actually really popular because they were cost effective to provide entertainment. On the other hand, even back then there were tons of companies making shitty toys around popular cartoons.
Right now company are smart enough to make shitty "educational toys" as they figured out they need to sell to the parents.
Kids are meant to be educated. Without good art and technology education, They would just consume crappy toys like junk food.
I was lucky enough to discover the fun of dissembling and repairing electronics for my parents. But not all children are like that.
It all comes down to how we educated young kids. Primary school teachers are not the best educated and they are paid lowest. Better education will mean smarter toy industry and more educated adult in the future.
It requires specialised education to guide free play into a constructive activity. There's a big difference between "Here's a lump of clay. Smash it with your fist until you're bored." and "Here's a lump of clay. Let's try and mold it into something together, like a flower, or a bowl."
Also, depending on the child there can be a lot of learning in the "smash it until you're bored" phase. Then you can show a technique, or help them make something they can be proud of and help, a little, to show they can produce artefacts they are proud of if they seek to learn and apply that learning.
There's also much therapy in smashing clay, it doesn't hurt it as I remind every person I instruct on making pottery.
Grew up in 90s china, clay was actually really popular because they were cost effective to provide entertainment. On the other hand, even back then there were tons of companies making shitty toys around popular cartoons.
Right now company are smart enough to make shitty "educational toys" as they figured out they need to sell to the parents.
Kids are meant to be educated. Without good art and technology education, They would just consume crappy toys like junk food.
I was lucky enough to discover the fun of dissembling and repairing electronics for my parents. But not all children are like that.
It all comes down to how we educated young kids. Primary school teachers are not the best educated and they are paid lowest. Better education will mean smarter toy industry and more educated adult in the future.
But who on earth is going to pay for that?