Who said they couldn't be paid? Patreon, kickstarter, etc show that you can do what you care about and still make money ethically.
Also, both succesfull patreon and succesfull kickstarter require significant effort to pull off. You have to create materials, build community and promote promote and so on. It is a lot of managerial work.
We are not talking about "buy third yacht" level of money here. We are talking about "I can finally afford dentist or something else basic" amount of money here. It makes difference in people's lives.
Nobody said it was easy to raise money. If it was, everyone would do it.
Crowdfunding and donations make plenty if money to afford a dentist or other basic needs. There are plenty of full-time groups making money with it. I don't know why you think thats not possible when it is already happening.
Most crowdfunding campaigns fail. Most pay for medical campaigns fail. Most including those succesfull don't earn enough to be full time.
Inspirational feel good article about succesfull campaign is not representative of average case.
Most advertisement based sites fail. Does that mean we should also abandon that model?
Nobody said that the average campaign should succeed. I definitely don't believe that.
You can't just keep putting words into my mouth and then claim that I am the one changing the topic.