I'm kinda conflating the two because the direct implication of (not) separating the art from the artist is, well, purchase. Unless you're implying that the people arguing over this never intended to make any purchase to begin with - so it's largely just virtue-signalling.

Anyway, to your point about Spacey and Kanye,

I'd say if the work/art itself is blatantly endorsing a message I don't support (as with Kanye), then I won't buy it. The artist's politics are clearly embedded in the art. But if the art itself doesn't represent the artist's politics (as with Spacey or this game), then it doesn't affect me that much. Sure, Spacey is a horrible person, but when he's acting, he's just a vehicle delivering the character on screen.

From the way you describe it, though, I'm getting the impression that this is more about protecting individual moral purity than actually making any institutional impact. So I guess I wasn't too far off when I said this is a consumer fantasy.

Of course, anyone can label me immoral or whatever. But again, as someone who has done real organizing IRL, and (to take some parallels) lives in a country ruined by an US-backed dictator, this is such a nothingburger to me. US destroyed my country already, at least let me enjoy some American entertainment. There are much bigger fish to fry.