As far as the NFL comparison. You're talking about 4 players vs 53 in the NFL.
Plenty of them would sign contracts, if they were offered a salary. lol But the orgs aren't initiating that most of the time. (participate in the league, of which they earned the spot) sure, but its very apparent that the players benefit the teams a large amount more.
Heres where you are losing me though. The Risk issue. Whats riskier?
Org signs 24k a year sponsor for 12 months. CONTRACTED it costs 24k a year to fund a team to events. thats.. zero risk.
Player joins team has events paid for. But doesnt quite make enough money doing this full time. Life has bills and responsibilities. alot of them are foregoing education to try and make this dream a reality. and they are doing so, with NO sort of financial stability. They can't buy a car, buy a house, hell RENT a house, unless they have won substantial amounts of money.
The risk, is honestly on the side of the Sponsors and the players. the Orgs have no risk. flat out and simple. They took the risk one time, when they self funded the team until a sponsor picked up the bill. now the sponsors front the bill anyways and thats on a contract, doesn't matter if you make a roster change, drop from 6th to 12th. those contracts are rarely ever performance based. so for 12 months you are funded. yet the players can't see stability past a single season because they have to WIN events in order for this to be a viable option. which is not how it should be. at a PRO level, players should be able to play and compete without the burden of having a second job etc. (if we want them to be looked at as professional athletes and taken seriously in the grand scheme of it). I think we are at that point. Honestly. Mabye Orgs should be obligated to pay into the league salaries say 2-4k per season. that gets added into your teams salary. and whoever starts for you each match receives that in addition to your MLG salary. that would cut out the contract/rostermania issues with paying players. (lot of logistically things that would have to get worked out but.)
And if you are basing your things off of stream numbers, i think you are highly undervaluing the players. Do you know what social media posts from celebrity status or highly followed people cost?.. its not cheap. these players have large dedicated followings. Their voice is worth money plain and simple. Sure sponsors are giving money to the org because most of these guys are kids, but the orgs shouldn't be taking it all. They should be putting it back into these players so they can create stability within the players, and THEN look at expanding the org etc.