This video encapsulates everything I've been saying the whole time. Lots of small products, regular interval distro, diversified portfolio, ballpark 30k for live action narrative, etc. You need a big audience to break even or succeed, and it takes sustained effort even if the product is good. Think in terms of producing a BB every day, rather than a cannonball every month. Secondary and tertiary income streams are key for many channels.
If you come in with a lot of money at the start, and then spend like you have no money, you can probably win, dependent on content. Most people either come in with money and spend it all at the going rate, which is millions per episode, or come in with no money and fail, or make a grand an episode. What people aren't trying is the hybrid, take in a few million dollars, and spend it 3 grand at a time, building up fanbase and analytics data over time. Spend a fifth of your money per episode, you only get to make 4 course corrections.
I'm personally going to roll out hundreds of videos per year, each one fairly cheap, with all of them interconnected to encourage chain viewing. With investment, I could probably stage up output to almost 1000 per year, and that's a lot of fishing hooks in the water. More videos mean more paths of ingress for potential viewers on search, and more opportunities to pick up ad revenue and sponsors.