The incentives of creators and audiences do not align. Audiences want free stuff and can’t be bothered to pay. Creators have to be paid. You are correct about

The incentives of creators and audiences do not align. Audiences want free stuff and can’t be bothered to pay. Creators have to be paid. You are correct about publishers being aligned with neither. In media nobody is really aligned with anyone. The publisher wants to screw the creator. The audience wants to screw the publisher (and the creator). Other perverse incentives exist too, like bombing the market with ad supported free crap to win attention. The creator has always been at the bottom of the totem pole. If artists were not self motivated to make the art for its own sake, nobody would ever choose that profession.