Fandom is friction
Doug Shapiro on Big Media's Structural Disadvantage:
Fandom is a biological override: a relationship strong enough to justify effort in a world designed to eliminate it.
Big media wins by removing effort.
Which means it has spent two decades optimising away the exact thing fandom runs on.
Friction is evidence of appetite. You cannot buy the willingness to be inconvenienced. You can only be worth it.