This is what I meant at the end of the post: From what I know, most of the costs associated with hosting things have gone down compared to what they would have been back in the day, especially for things like storage. Inflation is certainly a factor, but it feels like there has to be more to the story than that. Too many things don't make sense, such as the fact that this seems to have extended even to just hobby stuff that never cost anything to begin with. Sites like Pixiv have never charged people to upload there, yet it seems like more and more artists are operating in a way that's focused on profit above everything else.
It doesn't feel like a strictly monetary problem, if that makes sense. It feels almost more like there's just no will to create anymore, that the kind of spirit that drove things like early Newgrounds and the proliferation of Flash games has been somehow destroyed entirely. Which itself feels nonsensical, cause it basically implies that creativity in general has somehow died in the last few years.
