I agree, money is very weak motivation. People need understanding of meaning of their job. And when they have understanding of their way. It bring awesome result.
If money was such a poor motivator as you claim, businesses will not be doing everything that they can to try to get as much profits as possible, even some of the greatest genius in the history of humanity were motivated by money, of course they wanted to reach something greater than themselves and wanted to make great discoveries and to create great inventions but at the end money is a necessity for everyone and we need it to survive.
So we need to accept the reality money is one of the greatest motivators in the world, if it wasn't for money and what it buys people will not wake up at 5 o'clock to go to their jobs and work long hours at a job they hate, they do that great sacrifice because they want the money and nothing more.