Idk about it being just money. I think the biggest issue is algorithm based discovery. Algorithms don't really reward being different, they often encourage more of the same. you liked this so here more of this. Now if you want your content to be seen you need to cater to how content is discovered.

Money imo comes into play by people who realized that algorithms can be gamed to get bs to the top. The core problem is still algorithm based discovery. Even if you take away people who are focused on money.