Most major social platforms were built as advertising businesses first. Creators were, for years, simply the unpaid supply chain that kept people scrolling long enough to see ads. Creator funds were added later, largely in response to competitive pressure, not as a core part of the business model.
The structural problem
When a platform's core business is selling ad space, every dollar paid to a creator is a dollar not kept as profit — which creates a built-in incentive to keep payouts as low as competitively possible.
What a differently-built platform looks like
Platforms designed from the start around creators sharing in the upside have a different structural incentive: growing creator earnings and growing the platform's value are the same goal, not opposing ones.