I'm sorry noone wants to listen to your garage band anymore because they prefer megastars like Taylor Swift or can listen to the newest K-Pop five seconds after a song was released and uploaded, but that's globalization for you.
Sure, 200 years ago you had to listen to whoever could afford an instrument in your village - regardless of skill - but we don't inhabit that world anymore.
I would not vall thr current megastars the pibbacle of skill. In fact its well known they are not chosen based on skill.
That's exactly the problem. People _are_ still listening to local bands, they're just not paying them to do so.
I doubt the margins from records & CD sales made them a killing.
Otherwise, if we weren't hosting, the money we were paid for playing wasn't even enough to cover band expenses (instrument maintenance, travel costs, etc). Selling merch helped. Selling LPs / EPs was usually just an attempt to make back the cost of recording them in the first place.
If the band was signed, things were different depending on their specific deal. But those bands probably don't count as just "local" anymore, at that point.