These are basically narratives from Romantic fiction of the starving artist that are still being repeated as if they are not just fiction.

Of course, the starving artist can not be well paid. That would imply they are not a true artist, they are a sell out.

The starving artist is starving because they are misunderstood by society so naturally what they love is not going to have a lot of economic value.

None of this of course has anything to do with reality. Just the plot lines from 200 year old novels that we have forgot were just novels.