But then, deciding to write in a very niche, small subgenre and then choosing to be guided by sales boggles my mind. If authors wanted to appeal to the most readers, they wouldn't be writing haremlit.

Honestly that isn't really how it works. This is our livelyhood, and a badly selling book vs a good selling one is the difference between living paycheck to paycheck (if that) and making a great living with money saved for retirement.

Yes, other genres like say, LITRPG, romance, fantasy have books that do far far better (higher cieling) but the floor is insanely lower. The majority of authors that try their hand at these will not make even a fraction of an average selling harem book, because the harem genre floor is so much higher.

What's more, I think i speak for most of us when I say, this is the genre I want to write. This is what i'm passonate about. I don't want to chase money making myself misrable writing other peoples fantasies in romance.