I imagine him being a character like Gail Wynand from Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. When he was a kid people always told him shut up, "you don't run things around here." So he got rich and got a yacht named "I Do [run things around here]" He's mildly annoyed at people who live for themselves, seeking what they want in life. Picard must be the worse example, carrying on about how his motivations are what he personally believes to be righteous. Offenhouse tells him is not about wealth, it's about power to control your destiny. Picard tells him that kind of power is an illusion, Picard is saying it from a position of always having a privlidged life. Picard means he accepts he might die from an incurable disease or a freak accident. Picard has never had to accept he might not have his rights respected or he might die from a curable disease unless he can build wealth. Maybe Picard would have been very much like Offenhouse if he had grown up in the same circumstances.
So I like to think Offenhouse learns in the 24th century to let go of that childhood fear and devotes himself to what he truly wants in life. Maybe he finds he finds a purpose in learning about the post-industrial economics of the 24th century, gets a job managing parts of it, and builds a case where some market-based systems for managing scarce resources could be more efficient that central planning.
