The beautiful is more useful than the useful is my variation on a quote from Les Misérables.
If Egypt has been doing only useful stuff then when you go to a museum you'd only see shards of pots and pans, and square coffins here and there.
The entire legacy of Egypt is art and architecture, skillful decoration of objects, and application of art.
Remember that if Egypt didn't do art all it would have remained from it would be sand dunes.
Be careful not to carve art from the belly of human civilizations.
Art has the power to obliterate everything useful in the contest of time.
Art is not a tool like the useful things but a product of the pure human intellect.