What I know from news articles is that some of them openly "escort", like some traditional porn stars did more quietly. The fame on the screen can be brand-building for the even more lucrative in-person work.

As one said in a quote, regarding AI threat and crumbling economies: "The oldest profession will be the last profession."

If some of them want to move to the US right now, from currently healthier countries, one reason may be that social inequality means there are many deep-pocketed customers able to pay 5 figures for a weekend experience.

It increases the countries' soft power if people around the world watch content from there.

Eg. a self-reinforcing cycle that you get the best from the other immigrant categories arriving because they choose the country where everything "seems to be happening".

> A streamer / OF [may not have to be in person]

From what I understand about OF, it's not just people posting lewds, sometimes there are other actors in the media.

Having access to established actors and uh... "collaborating" with them would require being there in person I would guess.

> A streamer / OF worker is not like that as far as I know (but e-sports is).

Well Streamer vs Influencer can be different potentially, that said I can think of one example even for video game streamers, that being the AGDQ charity event where speedrunners/streamers do stuff live for charity at the event space.

> I thought the reason for this to be a visa is because their fields' activities were in-person (acting in movies/plays/shows, academic life & research, sports training & leagues, etc). A streamer / OF worker is not like that as far as I know

An OnlyFans worker may make the bulk of her money by meeting fans in person for dates. That can't be done over the internet.