In his scenario weight was a factor.
They were trying to get the sub to be as light as possible so it could be operated from nearly any vessel. The goal was to have the sub and a launch sled that could be launched and recovered aboard a rented ship. This was all to save money; they didn’t want to have to purchase and outfit a special purpose support vessel.
I read Recursion a while back, it was a really strange book. I had to re-read the last parts to get a decent grasp of what was going on at the end.
I used to work for a retail chain many years ago and I do not think this is true for everywhere.
When we were asking for donations it was tracked and if our location didn’t get enough donations our store manager would get talked to by his district manager. I don’t know exactly what happened to the money once it was donated, but I don’t think they would have been so adamant about getting the donations if they didn’t make anything from it.
This was like 20 years ago though, maybe its different now.
I think its because it takes some talent and effort to reproduce an artists style. If someone just makes Stable Diffusion do it, there isn’t much effort put in on their part so it seems like they are taking advantage.