You created wealth when you actually made things. Each individual “widget” may not have much intrinsic value but in the aggregate that was real wealth. When you got promoted your services were perhaps deemed more valuable to your company as a whole. But you are still piggybacking on those who are still making the “widgets”. No “widgets”, no job for you.
If I’m a medical doctor in the emergency room of a Level 1 trauma center, do I create wealth when I go to work every day?
Interesting. And here I was, thinking that I was creating wealth so that my company could hire more people to make widgets. Maybe I should’ve moved to that island to collect seagull eggs. I’d really be creating wealth, instead.