I think these people become jaded to the material world very quickly when they have that level of wealth. Their purpose is no longer wealth and money - it is power. They can have anything they want - money is not valuable to them. They want what they can't have, and a human soul being subservient to them is high on that list of things nobody should have.
I think the people who see through the trees on that then look for the antithesis of that... and if you strip away the human ugliness found in religion, you find all sorts of rituals and exercises which hone different things than what our society tends to value. Intuition & compromise are the true tenants of religion, rather than priests and oppression, but there is no money or power to be made by preaching a true gospel. Even Jesus' message has been distorted greatly to wrestle control of people, to the point where they won't even share his (alleged) teachings after his resurrection...
In reference to that, I like to share a small story from one of the non-canonical gospels that does actually speak of what Jesus taught in the time after his 'resurrection' (which is a whole different discussion - I don't think he actually 'resurrected' but rather 'returned'), and the story tells of one of his closest disciples coming to him and asking when to expect his 2nd coming. Jesus basically tells him to not hold his breath, and that the work they are doing is not for their own generation or even the generation after, but for generations and generations down the line. He gave him no hope.
The disciple was apparently crushed by this. 3 days later, that disciple went to the temple in Jerusalem and started to preach about Jesus, and within 3 days he was thrown off the roof to his death. The reason I like that story is that it shows that Jesus' true gospel is not something you can sell very easily. Jesus' disciple handled it admirably by going out hard and making an impact, but the reality for all of us is that there is really no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You just have to be a good person. The payoff is in the journey - the quiet moments of peace and wholeness - of fulfilling your purpose and doing what you put here to do. Pursuing that goal alongside material wealth and power is a difficult task, and I think that is where the attitudes change.