For what it's worth:
1- This is not news. People have been making the same point over and over since KU was introduced. No, KU is not a substitute for full price sales for the vast majority of authors. It has never been billed as such. What it has been billed as by AMAZON is as discovery tool.
Right there in their sign up page: "Enjoy the freedom to explore over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and current magazines on any device for just $9.99 a month." For authors this means it is a *promotional* tool to get books before readers who aren't already fans.
2- If you look at the "Andrews" math, that .85 multiplier means there is an agent in the loop, which means that "Andrews" is a hybrid author with one foot in tradpub and one foot in the Indie world. Lots of those around and more each day. A good thing. But being hybrid, that means that they have an *established* fanbase willing to *buy* the books at full retail. So, why even bother with KU? As a promotion? As an alternative to Bookbub or permafree? Neither of those returns full profits either.
3- Having established that KU doesn't work for established authors (or readers looking for established/tradpub authors) who does benefit from KU? The thing is on its way to its fifth anniversary with an ever-increasing catalog and ever-increasing payout pool. Somebody other than Amazon likes it. Many somebodies, in fact. For starters, the obvious: unagented authors selling their books around $3 instead of $5. Authors who don't have the name recognition of fanbase to make a living off full price sales, typically authors still ramping up their career. To these authors, being discovered and getting reviews is worth more than just the pool payment. Each discounted read is another brick in the foundation of a writing career. Foundation, not penthouse.
3- There is one other (enormous, actually) category of author for whom KU makes economic sense: authors published by Harlequin between 1990 and 2004, plus some published up to 2012, who earned advances in the $300-500 range and royalties in the $0.25-0.35 range as a result of Harlequin self-dealing.
https://dearauthor.com/features/indu...-of-royalties/
They are they are the reason why both KDP and KU skew heavily towards romance. Yes, "Andrews" is right to consider a $2 payout inadequate but somebody used to a $0.25 payout on a $5 paperback? Hey, that's an 800% boost. (And to readers used to paying $5 for those stories, a $9.99 monthly fee is two books worth.) A common testimonial from these "Harlequin refugees is "...made more in one month of KU than the entire run with Harlequin".
It takes all kinds.
Right here we have readers who won't blink at a $15 ebook, readers who won't go above $9.99 or $4.99 or some other budgetary limitation. Some people lean heavily on free reads, from libraries or promos.
Different budgets, different markets.
It's not a one size fits all situation but different solutions for different budgets.
" Andrews" isn't alone in finding KU payouts too low nor the first to say so openly.
Not news.
Early on a bunch of established authors found KU was cannibalizing their KDP sales and Amazon graciously let them break the 90 day contract early. After all, they were losing money too.
(Amazon did institute a bonus payment program for authors who get significantly higher than average reads because, well, some animals are more equal.)
That was open news years ago; you'd think the agent would've warned "Andrews" upfront.
https://the-digital-reader.com/2015/...thout-penalty/
You'd think the word would be out on that by now.
Me, I've never bothered with KU because I'm covered with the Baen bundles, Prime monthly freebies, Prime reading, and the occasional impulse buy. It's not $9.99 a month but I rarely go over $30. And that fits my budget. My sister swears by KU, though. She likes the fixed price and finds no shortage of reads or reason to pay more. Except once or twice a year.
To each their own.
The good news is there are plenty of options for the informed.
There's no right way or wrong way to get reads.
Do what suits you but don't expect your situation to apply to others.