alt Hacker NewsI've given this quite some thought and came to the conclusion that there is actually no choice, and all parties fall into the first category. It's just that some people intrinsically like working on commercial themes, or happen to be trendy.
Of course there are some artists who sit comfortably in the grey area between the two oppositions, and for these a little nudging towards either might influence things. But for most artists, their ideas or techniques are simply not relevant to a larger audience.
> and all parties fall into the first category [...] Of course there are some artists who sit comfortably in the grey area between the two oppositions
I'm not sure what your background is, but there are definitly artists out there drawing, painting and creating art they have absolutely zero care for, or even actively is against or don't like, but they do it anyways because it's easier to actually get paid doing those things, than others.
Take a look in the current internet art community and ask how many artists are actively liking the situation of most of their art commissions being "furry lewd art", vs how many commissions they get for that specific niche, as just one example.
History has lots of other examples, where artists typically have a day-job of "Art I do but do not care for" and then like the programmer, hack on what they actually care about outside of "work".