Maybe every generation feels this. But I really think ours lucked out. We were shielded by childhood from the worst of the early times and then bolstered with past success for the worst of the later times.
I was big into the WC3 custom maps community back in the day, the idea that you could make money doing any of this was silly. The point when I was growing up was two things:
1. Make something fun to play
2. Make something I could put into my college portfolio
I did both things, but it was never about making money or being exploited, and I think I prefer that.