Oh I remember his blog post now, yeah. Tho I can't quite recall where I got my figure, I think it was a podcast of some sort, also probably outdated at this point.
And I agree with your second point, but I still think that doing porny stuff has a lower entry bar for viable payouts. Sakimichan does have a wide audience because of the subject matter, but I don't think the amount of money would be the same if it were just regular old fanart, since there's a bunch of that already by various people and I don't think they make anything near those numbers.
Either way, I don't really have a problem with folks earning cash doing what they love (hell, I want in on that too), but the numbers there kinda suprised me.
You have to remember - it's not just the time et al, it's also the skill. Considering the amount of time that someone devoted to
getting to that spot, the high price on commissions does add up. Plus it's a lot of effort often to get yourself out there, get well known, force yourself to do work (in some instances anyway) that makes you recognizable, etc etc.
I will say doing porny stuff has an awesome bar for payouts, lmao. The more unusual you're willing to go, the higher - but at the same time you're setting yourself a reputation there. I will say I see a lot of artists way, way underpricing though; if you're giving me $25 for a piece of art, it better damn well be a sketch. I don't actively do commissions anymore because I'm working on other things, but yeah - I've seen multi-hundreds pretty often. The furry community actually tends to be more willing to pay good prices, and oddly not even "all" or even "mostly" porn, lol.
At the same time ... For some reason a lot of people want to think digital art should cost less, which really irks me, particularly since it also comes with the expectation of more fully controlled art.
That is, in highschool I sold a random painting for $75 to a teacher; she had no control over what it was, she just saw it and went "I want that" and paid the (what I considered outrageous) price I'd put on it at the art show. It was an impressionist, silhouetted landscape, which tbh was like 60% black and near-black paint - but she loved it. For most average commissioners (like, for example, on dA) if I charged $75 I better be giving a full custom illustration! And background! And action! etc etc ... of course that may also be the difference in older, wealthier commissioners and kids who want art of OCs.
And then you get into the adoptables scene and I completely forget where this rant was going because I remember that people pay several hundred dollars for relatively simple but popular 'adopts' and I just throw my chair out the window.