I think one of the issues is that the barrier to entry for creators is much higher than it used to be. Back in the old days (I am the alt of a long-dead avatar) if you arrived in SL with basic, rudimentary Photoshop skills, your learning curve was relatively small in terms of fashion: understanding the avatar mesh, and learning to create and manipulate prims.
That was pretty much it, and if you were good with those few tools, that could take you pretty far. I mean, I still regularly wear a handful of vintage clothing from way back -- old, old Nyte N Day, Simone, Dazzle, Pixel Dolls -- and it held up to the current standard until very recently when mesh arrived and the prim skirt began to be outmoded. (Except skin; old skin does not hold up well!)
Then we got scuplts, and you needed to learn to use Blender or a similar programme. That is a steep learning curve for a casual creator, and there was a goodly amount of attrition. Then we got mesh, and the learning curve got even steeper with even more falloff.
So basically, it's much much harder to walk into SL these days with some rudimentary skills and grow them organically into a business. You need to arrive with a relatively sophisticated skillset, or go out and invest the time and money in developing one. Absolutely, some people will do that and that's why we have the new creators we have; I just think fewer creators are being asked to do more with a larger skillset for less money than the old days, and I get why that isn't so appealing.