For its own sake and not for its own sake

I just finished watching the podcast with Raz Zauber. In the last ten minutes, you addressed the observance of mitzvot not out of recognition of man’s obligation to exist before his God, but out of fear of punishment/reward in the near or distant future/religious experience of one kind or another. I understood that the discussion is about those who recognize the Creator and His mitzvot, but the motivation stems from these. You argued that observance of such a mitzvot has no religious significance at all, and although I am willing to push for such an interpretation of “from the non-for-shema came the non-for-shema” of the Gemara and the Mishnah – that the non-for-shema in itself is meaningless, in Rambam on Shema and the Shema, it seems that even this type of work for the non-for-shema of personal gain, despite its smallness, is desirable in itself. (Mainly in Moreh Nevuchim, but also in the laws of Teshuvah and in the commentary on the Mishnah)
And regarding the parallel between the Righteous Among the Nations, on Rosh Hashanah 4:1 the Gemara divides the giving of this rock into righteousness for the sake of the living of the children of Israel and the nations of the world. (There it is actually explained that there will be cases where the Gentile will even be considered wicked and not just wise, such as when he fulfills the Seven Commandments of the children of Noah out of the breadth of his mind, and yet the Israelites will be considered completely righteous.)