Reading is not writing.
Both require sustained attention, both require skill with language, and both require an expenditure of intellectual energy.
Yet even deep reading—with pencil and highlighter in hand, physically engaging with an article, poem, or book-—is mostly a passive activity, whereas writing is mostly an active activity.
In reading, we are the audience; in writing, we are the creators.
And the world always, always, always values the creators more.