he suggests that the ltv loses applicability somewhat in modern capitalist economics because so much of the work being done in even commodity-producing companies absolutely does not need to be done for the production and sale of those commodities (even from a purely capitalist perspective where work for e.g. labour discipline and advertising are “valuable”) and that capitalist social relations seem to break down in the internal structures of large modern corporations.

This sort of make work program is a defense mechanism of capital. Those workers are in fact a form of the reserve army of labor. They exist to be kept on hand and ready for liquidation when the labor market contracts. That's why when a firm starts to contract, it's those workers that are the first to get the can.

However, white times are good, keeping a well paid reserve army also helps to prevent crises of overproduction as they temporarily are able to consume surplus and give a large portion of their inflated wages back to the capitalist class through consumption of luxury goods.

The labor aristocrat is buffer for capital.