Both of you are missing a key ingredient that the article goes over -- fanboyism.

  “A lot of people just felt that there was value in being able to work on anime that they loved,” Mr. Hirakimoto said. “No matter how little they got paid, they were willing to do the work.”

  Looking back at his departure, he said, “I don’t regret the decision at all.”

And the same story is in the video game industry. Take Blizzard for example. When I moved to SoCal I applied for lots of tech companies including Blizzard, and got several offers. Blizzard was by far the lowest offer. And I noticed during the interview process, everyone I talked to kept asking what I thought about Blizzard, and it wasn't the standard "why do you want to work here?" I got the impression they were testing how much of a fanboy I was. And from others I've talked to afterwards, that is exactly what they were doing.