It existed before covid. It's just a more ethical way of making porn.
The problem is the balance can never be achieve. I won't pretend i know everything about the porn industry but the biggest sites a few years back, we talking like 10-15 years ago, would pay 800$ for a B/G scene. Yes the scene may had been 25 minutes but included hours of shooting, yet 800$ 10 years ago is not a bad ammount at all. If she did Anal or a threesome etc, she would be paid more.
On the customer side, using Brazzers as an exemple, the prices seem fair. 30$US per month but more months you take, the best price you get. If you pay for 5 years i think you can have it for less than 10$ a month. Thats new scenes almost daily and a huge backlog of content.
On the other hand, onlyfans for customers is 10-20x more expensive. Even if the entry fee is FREE, i see often scenes at 30$ US per month, wich you need to convert to CAD$ and add sale taxes too. 30$ turn to 46 or so. How come one scene of 12 minutes or so is worth 46$ ... And i didn't even mention the biggest offender to me, a lack of previews or when there is some, they last about 15 seconds and don't show many things like regular porn trailers.
OF is designed around the concept of the "pay pig" or whale if you prefer, as OP said about his friend, and using men's feeling to get money. I do buy scenes on there when the price is right, like 10$US or so, sometimes i push it to 15$. But over that its just not worth it... But this is not the core of OF. Guys like me who buy a scene here and there are not why this concept is made. Its about those dudes who want their cock rates (a thing i can't understand either.... ) or having "sexting" or different forms of "online relation" with the model, not knowing that quite often they are talking to a handler (a guy who reply on the behaf of the model because it would be unrealistic to be able to keep it up for her).
Now if OF would ACTUALLY BE MORE ETHICAL like enforcing previews of content, enforcing the disclosure of what the model do or do not do, and letting us downloading what we buy without having to use "loops" than i would likely have a better opinion of it. Oh and did i mentioned i got "cheaten" multiple times by OF. I bough scenes for them to disapear out of my purchases. And its not because the model closed her account or whatever since i still have contents i bough that says "unregistered account" or something like that. Basically the creator closed her account but i still have acces to what i paid. So why did i lost my acces to CERTAIN scenes? If i didn't downloaded them i would had litterally been robbed !
I would finish by saying that you need to be smart about your money and ESPECIALLY never buy content when horny. Always wait til after you fap and keep it for next time, so you can be sure you are a clear head on what you willing to buy. I average about 1 or 2 scenes per month or bi-monthly depending on months myself. I make sure the content is worth it. But just like video games with micro transactions (especially card packs in sports game and such) it can go fast if you ain't carefull and you have to be smarter than the system.