Can believe. I was involved with a digital music startup once, and learned that the labels take the vast majority of the sticker price. The artist would make bank from concerts, but only took home maybe 5%. The songwriter got majorly screwed with 0.5%. The reason they gave was their ‘distribution channels’. Digital distribution was supposed to get rid of this bullshit. Dunno if this has changed.
I feel this is the same with engineers versus the c-level 'idea people’s. Talent (i.e. the people doing the work) is grossly underpaid. Turns out passion doesn’t pay the bills most of the time.
Unfortunately, the fact that they understand it doesn’t mean they will do anything about it.