To clarify, your point is that for economy to be growing one of the following must be true (or some mix of them)
1. There is increased consumption (as in, increased unlocking and using of energy and resources to fulfill human desires we already know)
2. There are new human desires being made and valued higher than just fullfilling the existing ones more, mainly in the non-physical domain of culture, social value etc. and (nowadays) mainly digitally
And you are skeptical about the second one because some people care about the physical world?
It seems unlikely that all this talk about "inequality" would stick if people were happy with virtual wealth.
Eg, am I supposed to care about inequality caused because some people don't have a Facebook account/access to the Facebook ad market/a stake in managing the company? The accounts are basically free anyway. I'm convinced that Facebook has generated a lot of value, but I'm sceptical that anyone cares about the inequality of its distribution.
Compare that to food, energy, etc, where it is easy to see how lack of access/no ability to influence the decisions made would cause screams to echo throughout the land. I think that is probably what people care about when they talk of "the economy".
1. There is increased consumption (as in, increased unlocking and using of energy and resources to fulfill human desires we already know) 2. There are new human desires being made and valued higher than just fullfilling the existing ones more, mainly in the non-physical domain of culture, social value etc. and (nowadays) mainly digitally
And you are skeptical about the second one because some people care about the physical world?