Its not a norm, but it is now giving many people a chance to try.
If I have to compare, its synonymous with building a online presence with a blogging site. It won't earn you much and you won't buying yachts with that money. But the purpose of that blogging site is to get you some following and recognition in the community.
Then you need to go on and build something awesome that sells. That is playing the bigger game.
I didn't mean to suggest that this was the norm. It is, however, the system that you seem to want to defend. And it's a system that is an artifact of how technology used to work.
Making music is fun, social, and status enhancing. People are going to keep doing it, and doing it enthusiastically, whether it's possible to make money from recordings or not.
As if that were the norm.