I feel like the comments here cover the main issues with this article. I kept flip-flopping between appreciating the article and disagreeing with it. The two main issues I have with it are:
1. $1000/year to provide value is a business, not a "passion" in the true sense.
2. Highlighting the outliers of a given platform discredits the concept as something that many people can achieve.
"These fans expect to derive meaningful value and purpose from the product." - yes, that would be a business transaction.
This article could be rewritten to say that if you want to create a life-style business, make sure to generate enough value for someone (or a business) that they would be willing to pay $1000/year for your product. This will make profitability/success much easier.
Yes, the original author of 1,000 True Fans retracted his original views after hearing from musicians, but the general concept/framework doesn't seem to be broken even if the numbers have to be adjusted. The main idea is that you don't need millions of people paying you $1 to have success.
The problem with this approach is that you assume the user only has one email address signed in. They might have `/u/1/` as their personal email used on your website. This could cause more confusion than help since this isn't common practice. (Plus you are assuming gmail.)