Oh right, a lot of produce that makes it up here is from California, although we've noticeably weaned off of it over the course of the trade war.

I did mention the techbros. If the AI bubble pops, and geopolitics breaks the walled garden monopolies, it might end up a lot closer to Canada.

Add mining too. We export a lot of raw minerals

Yes, it's a resource-based economy. Agriculture and mining are also huge. They're all kind of hard to get at resources, though, so it's not like the Persian Gulf, where there's no expenses and it's a money printer. Basically, outside of certain parts of Ontario, people work in that instead of in factories. (And forestry in particular is being imploded by the US, right now)

Tokyo should, in theory, have all kinds of highly skilled professionals, who earn more than whatever logging grunt. But, the gap is still like 150%.

As in, doing worse economically. In this context, where that's clear, it seems like the wording holds up.

(or its economy, if you don’t define economy just as stock market go brrr)

GDP measures actual trade more than the stock market. That being said, yes, it's a litmus test, albeit a decently well supported one. The main places it breaks down, in terms of predicting people's lifestyles, is where there's major banking hubs (Singapore, Seychelles, Ireland for a while).

Sure, when you go to the store and buy food so you don't starve, that's mindless destructive activity. /s

It's definitely not a measure of wealth, if you know what it is, because it's more of a proxy for income and productivity. And in the end, it correlates decently well with actual lifestyles. (Quality of life is more nebulous; there's miserable rich people and happy hut-dwellers)