Livre d'Or

The problem with Quentin is that he's not merely unsympathetic, he's whiny. You can have a good book with a villainous POV character, but Quentin is just boring, and he doesn't undergo any character development. I agree that the other characters aren't much better, but I think I might have got on better with a story from Janet's POV or even Eliot or Alice.

I didn't interpret the thing with not using magic (or magically derived income) to make the world a better place as a direct prohibition. I thought it was partly that there's some degree of importance placed on not letting the muggles know that magic exists, but they do mention in passing that some Brakebills graduates go on to use their magic to save endangered species.

I think the idea is more that the amount of effort and obsession you have to put in to becoming a sufficiently powerful magician to make a difference is so great that it ruins your character and leaves you unable to think of anything effective or worthwhile to do with your immense power. And once you've experienced the wonder of the magical world it's hard to care about mundane reality any more. This seems a really pessimistic view of human nature, but it's not completely unconnected to reality; think of the stereotypical Wall Street financier, who is probably at least as bright as Quentin &co, who likely benefitted from an exclusive, world-class education, and can't really think of anything to do with his absurdly vast income beyond making yet more money.

Part of it is that you can be rich enough to afford just about any imaginable personal luxury, but unless you're Bill Gates rich or Warren Buffet rich, you can't really do much to fix the deep-rooted problems in the world. This is the whole post-fantasy theme that The Magicians is trying to explore: in the real world, getting the magical macguffin or having lots of talent doesn't lead to happily ever after. It's also an implicit critique of Harry Potter; one of the obvious holes in the HP worldbuilding is that you've got these immensely powerful wizards who pretty much just sit around running a high-class boarding school and completely fail to intervene in any of the urgent real world problems around them.

But I do agree, there's no real justification for the assumption that all Brakebills graduates are fated to end up like Alice's parents. There are plenty of satisfying life paths available to people who have nearly limitless financial resources and the ability to do magic (even if they can't just make an incantation that eliminates disease and poverty.)