Brad Walker - sometime poster here, made a rather good point on his blog about WOTC in all this mess:
"Both Stupid Seattle Game Publishers pay no better than any other publisher that can afford to pay at all, and considering Wankers By The Beach has Big Corporate money behind it that's especially galling. ..."
The fact that WOTC pays no better than any other RPG company is a real indication of exactly what the heads of D&D who are secure in their positions really think about the freelancers they hire.
Of all the places outsourcing writing; WOTC should be paying their freelancers on similar scale to writers in other fields.
The fact that they don't is classic 'Kick away the ladder' Pirate Economics behavior by those currently in charge of D&D who were able to gain full-time positions in the gaming industry early in life.
In their heart of hearts they know that they have no special talent or skill. That they are wholly reliant on the D&D logo above their name for their industry cache.
They fear the very idea of having to compete under their own name with the likes of Kevin Crawford, Pundit, or some of their own damn freelancers in anything resembling an open market...
By purposefully paying their freelancers bottom barrel RPG industry rates they are intentionally driving away any potential talent that could catch the eye of their corporate overlords, or attain any kind of following within current D&D fandom.
IMHO they are literally gatekeeping as much real talent out of the RPG industry as possible by making it far more lucrative for the truly talented to pursue different careers than writing RPGs...
Here's something else to think about:
When was the last time WOTC published a module with only one writers name on the cover?
We know from TSR history and current OSR offerings that it is completely possible for one person to write a complete high quality D&D supplement. Why does everything released for 5e come from an ensemble of writers?
That's a nice conspiracy theory. Did it come with a tin-foil Viking hat?
The RPG industry is full of
fans. Some immensely talented, many not. But many of them are willing to work for peanuts just because it's something they enjoy. Remember, "fan" is short for "fanatic". It's a case of supply outstripping demand, nothing else.
And most of the talented ones have real jobs in real life. The people who whine about how little the RPG industry pays are typically those with no options in other fields, and a massive sense of entitlement that convinces them they
deserve to be paid as much as lawyers or engineers. But since there are so many of them, they're paid like burger flippers (if they're lucky).
Which is the reason why most of the talented writers who are serious enough to do this full time or semi-full time have branched off, and formed their own RPG companies. If they have enough talent (and time) to sustain a brand, they can make decent money. The big companies are left with the half-talents, the no-talents, and the casuals.