It could be the case that the higher-ups are trolling and scamming the ignorant for money.
Could be.
I was thinking more that people REALLY seem to enjoy this stuff and the big thing about "Flat Earth" is that it's not like being a 9/11 or Sandy Hook conspiracy guy. Those are serious events where people lost their lives and it's probably very distasteful to many people to be digging through such things. Flat Earth give you all of the community engagement and exciting conspiracy talk, alongside pretty cool amateur science and philosophy, without the death and destruction and disrespect part.
Flat Earth feels kind of safe but also kind of edgy.
Like I could imagine myself saying at a dinner party "actually I think the earth may well be flat" and get a kick out of how some of the people would react.
I think they do quite a good job of revealing they way that people hold up "science" as some kind of unshakable truth and how ugly things can get when you challenge it.
There is definitely a valid concern about scammers and the like basically taking advantage of vulnerable people though.
The documentary on Netflix (I think?) made it look like a lot of fun.
I think the whole thing is pretty interesting but I don't quite understand it all myself.