You do not need to be in a business to make giant profits in order to be in a business to make money. There are many, many business that are purely profit-driven, yet only make modest sums past expenses.

As a reader, I am frequently frustrated because many of my favorite authors are no longer in print. I can only find their books at a local used bookstore, if I get lucky. And that's because of how the traditional publishers work. And traditional publishers work that way because they want to maximize what profits they get.