My friend's flipper zero would only work with the 2.0 port on his computer.

Writing a hit song is definitely a license to print money for someone. It gets its own stream that only goes to one place, basically. A given performance isn't compensated nearly as well because it has to be split between more than one person usually.

You could still make that, but it's harder to get something that has staying power or that stands out that much. Oh yeah, and lawyers.

This is basically the opposite of the argument that the "record" companies make today.
When the big music companies get up in arms about music piracy, it's not often acknowledged that being paid multiple times for one performance wasn't always a thing. It's only been a thing for a hundred years or so.
I have long suspected that sometime in the early parts of the 1900s, someone must have written something about it. i suspected i would find it in the letters to the editor of some scanned newspaper, but finding that there was a whole movement about it really confirms it for me.
New rabbit hole to explore, now that i know the name i am looking for.