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For all it's worth, I've arranged bar level gigs where there's a ticket at the door and it's split between the bands and promoter/band, bar takes a small percentage of merch sells and band takes a small percentage of drink sales (this one is the hardest to negotiate on my experience). So you are even more in the right and the account you are replying to is even more in the wrong, from my experience.

>I don't know what it is about music but for some reason there's like a tradition in online forums of people going on and on about the nuances of the financial deals in the music industry by people who have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

I suspect this is 2 factors: 1) music is something people care about, therefore they have opinions on it (whether or not these are justified). And 2) Gell-Mann Amnesia: You're familiar with music, so you quickly spot the bullshit that, in reality, suffuses almost all online discussions.

> Did you know that above the bar level the venues actually handle, and take a substantial percentage of, the merch sales?

You're referring to large amphitheater and arena shows, for big artists. This isn't (necessarily) true of most touring acts.

It's true of basically every concert that has actual tickets, like where you can buy a ticket, rather than a simple bar with a cover charge.