Performing artists have for centuries had to balance catering for popular opinion and tastes versus a more faithful realisation of their vision in order to make a living. I don't see a difference with this at all.
For online creators, I think the high speed and frequency of material creation, release, consumption and feedback, coupled with vast potential audiences, global competition for the nichiest of niches, the ease of copying ideas, and the extremely high rewards and margins for the winners, … is unlike anything that ever came before.
These are many large quantitative changes, that are going to have qualitative implications.
For instance, given the small scale of each offering, post, etc., most creators won’t have developed deeply held individual visions to be compromised with a focus on adapting
Especially as due to lower cycles you typically created larger units of work: Not just a song, but an album. Not just a poem but a book. So you could do the popular part and also the thing you care about and somehow tie them together.
These are many large quantitative changes, that are going to have qualitative implications.
For instance, given the small scale of each offering, post, etc., most creators won’t have developed deeply held individual visions to be compromised with a focus on adapting