I can relate. I lost my shirt when I ran an indie publishing company for 2 years a decade before yours. Didn't lose my house because I'd lost that in the divorce, but it killed me financially.

That said, there's so many aspects to this topic. Money shouldn't direct everything, true enough, but books cost money to publish and promote.

And it's not just the publishing industry rolling in the patriarchy, it's readers, too. I mean hell, even here, 85% of the top writers are male. I wrote about that once and had women explain to me why men are more valid sources of "technical" materials. Sigh

Christ, I could talk about the mess that is publishing for days. Not that anyone would see it. Because views suck lately.