True. You can't afford being a True Fan in Kelly's literal wording most of the time even in affluent societies. If I was a true fan of something in my teens (I wasn't) I wasn't spending money on it.
For all the concern W is displaying for artists trying to make an income off Kelly's rule of thumb, then in this turn of phrase turning that creative output into their fans 'hobby' probably is a put-down for any artist reading this. Thanks, mate.
It isn't about 'hobbies' only either.
The stacking of subscriptions is also problematic. It's the culture intermediators from above doing the exact same thing, thus eroding potential revenue in any actual existing niches (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify: the point is most people want both the fat head of the long tail to be available to them, in addition to the niches they're fan of. The spending likely still starts at the fat head, esp if it follows the same pattern as niche spending, small amounts regularly), and everybody else too (why does every single piece of software turn into a yearly subscription without realising all the umpteenth tools on my laptop trying to do the same make that impossible)
Yet I've never taken Kelly literally, not about the 1000 people, and not about the $100, you can switch that to any number, relevant to any location on earth, and any lifestyle, and still be invited to think realistically about the actual reach you need to make a living. In all cases you don't need to be a superstar to make it, nor a global market leader. It always used to be you could be 'world famous' in your part of the woods, now your part of the woods can be more distributed and does not depend on locality per se.