I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but I think that people are more likely to put up money if they believe in the model instead of because they are being nagged into it. For example, I have a nebula subscription that I happily pay while I refuse to pay for a yt subscription despite the fact that I watch youtube a lot more. This is more out of spite towards youtube than it not being worth the money (it probably is to be honest). I also donate money to wikipedia while I haven’t ever considered shelling out for encyclopedia britannica for example.
Video hosting is of course very expensive so I understand that it’s harder to fund wikipedia-style than wikipedia. People are probably happy paying creators they like but less so spending a ton of money on infrastructure.
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should