Think about it though. What's the alternative?
Before the internet, it wasn't easier for independent artists to get money for making the exact things they wanted to make. If I wanted to tell my story, had to convince someone in charge that my idea would sell. And if it was too different and he said "I just can't see that catching on," then I didn't have many options.
It's not as though back in Ye Olden Days, I would've been drawing my weird fantasy comic about a guy who's transforming into an eldritch horror going on weirdly goofy adventures with his best friend and a cranky necromancer AND getting paid for it. There was literally no option for me to get paid for that, because if an editor didn't believe there was an audience for it, I would not have the resources to distribute it. That story would live only in my head, or I'd stubbornly draw it for the sake of making it real with little hope of compensation or an audience wider than my own neighbours.
Heck, even in the days of patrons of the arts, artists had to do an awful lot of Bible Fanart for their patrons in order to get paid.
but NOW, it's an amazing new world where instead of being beholden to what some editor guy at a big publishing company thinks will sell, I can make that pitch myself, without his input ..... to the entire world. I can put my work out there for literally anyone to read and say, "hey, is this a story you would read? Is this something you want to spend money on?" the world can answer "yes" or "no" or "maybe just a little, because I want to see where this goes." I can go out and find the audience that the editors wouldn't believe existed. Or maybe there's not enough audience for my story to be worth it to the editors, but there might be enough to be worth it for me. It doesn't feel backwards to me! The fact that we now have the ability to tell exactly the story we want to tell, no one can stop us, and there are more and more resources (patreon, kickstarter, etc) for actually making that into a paying job is the most fantastic thing about the time we live in now!!
If you long for Ye Olden Days Of Editors, Marvel and DC and Dark Horse and whoever else still exist. Find a publishing company, find out what their requirements for unsolicited pitches are, and pitch them a story or apply for a job or go to a portfolio review and fight your way to getting noticed as a potential artist for their company. I don't say this to disparage -- it's a completely valid path, and for some folks it's The Dream to become the artist that company needs and get the chance to pencil spiderman!! But if you're imagining there was once a time where artists had both total creative freedom AND could demand an upfront sight-unseen price for their work, then I don't think that time has ever existed.