It's similar to manufacturing jobs from the past. Compared to other options, it was lucrative.

The reason why Henry Ford started paying people $5 was not out of generosity or to help them buy his vehicles. It's because the job was monotonous and people would constantly walk off the assembly line. People stayed because it provided a reasonable pathway to middle class when there weren't a lot of other viable options.

It may not be lucrative now, but it was needed to launch the industrial revolution.

Coal mining in the UK was very lucrative, but wealthy people hired armed men to ensure they took the wealth rather than the miners.