Services certainly do contribute to productivity -- that's why they exist. But with no underlying production of a tangible good, there would be no reason for them nor, indeed, a means to pay them for said services.
That is not economic "nonsense".
They do not, in and of themselves, create wealth.
You are so right. Though I would perhaps even go farther, saying there is no value without an underlying extractive or raw good, such as oil, metals, and including crops and forests and beasts and fish, wild and domestic. And probably even wind and sun, among other natural materials and elements that I can't think of here.
Without the raw good there is no product. Without the product there is no exchange. Without exchange, there is no profit, no added value, no refinement, no advancement.
Of course we all live so far from those facts now...but facts, like the laws of nature, will assert primacy at some point.
Am I wrong in this?