Without intangibles such as glory figured in, it is difficult to explain.
Aside from the fact that "intangibles" would be outside of anything considered "material", I would point out that none of the protagonists of Atlas Shrugged was seeking "glory" from anyone but their own peers; that is, people who valued creativity, hard work, and individual responsibility.
Such people were a vanishingly small minority [play on words here] and these were values not held by the "looters and moochers".