It's not a pipe dream but a very effective social/cultural tool for maintaining the status quo. Passed on for generations, so much so that many (like my maternal grandmother) forget it's origins and truely believe they are doing good. Elites (like nobles, slave owners, priests, etc) are a tiny minority in a sea of people exploited by them. You can't only rely on blunt force to mainain your position. Hence humans use "culture". All so called "altruism" I've seen in action falls in this category.

Once an year my gran (a slave owner descendant) would set up a huge table in the garden and laden it with presents and foods for the poor villagers that surrounded her area. Interestingly we, the family, were not allowed to sit at the same table to fraternise. So for us they remained an anonymous crowd, whilst we the "altruists" became highly personalised. This technique of personalising/depersonalising is by far the most effective violence management tool.

WWI was perhaps the most brilliant example of this massive class manipulation in action. Wilfred Owen's exposes it in his poem "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" for what it truly is: a big indoctrinated lie. One still used to this very day. Who, on both sides, are actually dying in the fields of Ukraine to day? Not the kids of the rich and powerful. Their task is to reap the post-war spoils and continue the status quo.

So forgive me if I don't believe in altruism and all its obscure power mechanics and much rather settle for a long term culture of selfish cooperation. It's why I use Systemic Consensus for creative collaboration.