I would love to support creators directly, but there are some hard problems that creators need to solve before they begin direct-to-consumer sales:
1. Discoverability
2. Payments
3. Shipping
While it is theoretically possible to handle all of these without a middle-man, the middlemen running the marketplaces have thus far done a much better job than individuals could ever hope to.
Personally I've never discovered anything on Gumroad itself. It's always been from some other source (here on HN, reddit, social media) and then followed a link to Gumroad.
Payments and shipping are precisely the kinds of things that could act as services directly to the creator itself. I thought that was somewhat the point of his conclusion - put these services directly in the hands of the creator.
Otherwise Gumroad is just acting as a payment + shipping wrapper. And if they're replacing what service they had left with AI, what value-add is left exactly?
1. Discoverability
2. Payments
3. Shipping
While it is theoretically possible to handle all of these without a middle-man, the middlemen running the marketplaces have thus far done a much better job than individuals could ever hope to.