As for materialistic benefits I think their main meaning and purpose is to make life easier and less burdensome, they don't have any special meaning.
If that is the case, how come so many people who manage to achieve what they want are so often very unhappy? They seem to lose momentum in life and struggle to find a purpose for doing things. Isnt this what happens when life becomes 'too' easy? Furthermore, what I would like to know is when does a person every have 'enough'? It seems to me that the more people have, the more they want. Greed. Humans are just so greedy!
When you talk about things going more or less in a 'natural' direction too, depends on where you look doesnt it? There's so much talk about individuals reducing their 'carbon footprint' and recycling and what have you, but truly no matter how much effort individuals put in it is like a drop in the ocean when you consider that governments run highly polluting factories and the like. They are so keen to tell the public what to do but the truth of the matter is it is all futile unless governments also take a step in the right direction, which they are not really prepared to do are they?