Lucas was an artist who became a businessman though.
I would say PT is a strong evidence of contrary. Even though PT sucked and was receiving lots of criticism since TPM, he was making what he wanted and not what audience wanted/expected. He could make films about Anakin/Vader being likeable badass, which is what most of people would love/expect to see, but instead he followed his own unpopular story where Anakin/Vader was an annoying whiner.
He still signed off on the biggest avalanche of merchandising rivaling even the OT for Phantom Menace. A good portion of it being crap that gathered dust on shelves for years. Would 1970’s George have allowed this to be made?
That does not change anything regarding him being an artist. He was not the one making all the merchandising stuff. He just allowed other people to make and sell it in exchange for profit. This is not a fairytale. We live in a real world. Primarily thanks to merchandising (from 1977 onward), he was able to retain his artistic freedom to make what he actually wanted.