The first universities were founded to educate priests, lawyers, and physicians. This can be seen in the way that universities standardized on 4 faculties: theology, law, medicine, and arts. What you are thinking of is the Humboldtian model of higher education which is a set of ideas that emerged in the 19th century and made research a central part of university's mission.

I still agree with you though in that it is not necessarily the universities responsibility to cultivate founders.

They're not really targeted at artists but for writing and taking notes. In my opinion, they have a nice smooth feel and work well for this purpose. But they're on the expensive side, so if you don't care about the looks, there are many other—wallet-friendly—options out there!

The eraser is infamous for being terrible. But it looks cool.