Interestingly enough, I had previously removed my comment in hindsight - I try to be very polite, but I thought "eh, this person might get annoyed anyway, because.. internet?"

The original comment, for context:

I feel like if you haven't actually experienced a thing yourself, forming an accurate and informed opinion on that thing can be a bit difficult - and that's okay. It's always good to do a bit more reading and ask more questions before jumping to conclusions.

Every Magic artist I know cares a great deal about their fans (who very often ask them if they will be there). It's a huge part of why they make the effort to attend events, even if they might sometimes barely break even in profits (which does happen) - so if you'd like to twist that into a negative thing about their selfish feelings of "importance", that's up to you. But perhaps you should have a few more conversations with artists, because I think it will help you realise that simply isn't true.

Most of the other things you have said have already been explained or contradicted by facts and information already provided in this thread. If you choose not to read that information, that's your own choice, I guess. :)

So, if you found any of that condescending, sorry about that, it certainly wasn't my intention. The fact that it's difficult to understand the ins and outs of something you haven't personally experienced is a purely factual observation, and something all of us will encounter. However, I don't really think suggesting that someone might ask more questions and talk to more artists about the topic is a condescending thing to say. There's a lot of strange misconceptions about art as a career, so I think it's important to talk about openly.