Rinhee is on the lower end of popular porn content with under 1500 paid Patreon members.
Howd you get that number? But assuming its correct (his patreon doesnt give any figures), and the 10 dollar tier is the most popular (according to his patreon page), that means at least 51% of people are doing 10 bucks a month. 750 is half of 1500. So lets make it 755. 755x10 is $7,550 USD. the remaining 745 would do 5 dollar tier. So $3,725 USD
$7,550 + $3,725 is
$11,275USD a month.
This is NOT including, fantia, gumroad, and his other accounts. This number is also assuming *the bare minimum* are subscribing to the 10 dollar tier to make it 'most popular', according to Patreon. Odds are its higher. If we assume 33% of all of his money is going towards fees and taxes, he takes home
$90,651 USD a year. Again, this is the bare minimum he is making off Patreon alone.
the median salary in Japan is around 41k USD a year. The average is around $47,544USD.
I'm kinda rambling here but my point was I hope he makes even more money, but I doubt money is an issue for him in terms of his creativity. As for your point about followers: it merely indicates popularity. There is a *direct correlation* with popularity and money you make.
I'm merely using Kemono and twitter as a barometer for popularity. Hell, look at this 74 page thread. Now look at the 3 or 4 page threads for other artists. For the ones that have it publically visible, you'll see far lower earning numbers. Its like if you go to a file sharing site and see Michael Jackson shared a TON and small indie bands far fewer. They're all getting the content for free, but the popularity of the artists on a free file sharing board correlate with their real world popularity and their sales numbers.
If 90% are getting your content for free than the higher that 90% number is in nominal terms the higher the 10% is for people paying. if 90% is 25k people on kemono, then 10% is 2.5k people paying you money. Conversely 10% of 500 favs on kemono is 5 people.