I've always thought that rights and responsibilities were somewhat fraught concepts, and I really like it your analysis!

As you say, I think the idea of "rights" tends to encourage a sort of selfishness or entitlement - as if the universe owes anybody anything. But, in fact, rights are not guaranteed by (or even really even a part of) the natural universe. They are merely a social contract between people - often manifested specifically as a promise by a community or collective towards its constituents.

And responsibilities are similar. As you say, it doesn't make sense to assign responsibilities to someone if they don't have the power or ability to perform those duties. And I think there's another prerequisite: they need to have something compelling them to do the work. The motivations could be intrinsic or extrinsic. They could be persuing a desired benefit or avoiding an unwanted cost. But either way, they need to have something pushing them to do the work - otherwise, the system falls apart.