You do know that this whole comment chain was started by Valve trying to push paid mods with the help of Bethesda right?

Yes, I started the conversion by saying that's bad and should be called out, why?

“kid down the street” really? Are you creating the image of a fictional modder to attract pity?

No, I'm going with your story of being a kid with no money in a third world country, because it was my childhood too. I solved that problem by spending my free time modding a free to play game – I was that kid down the street. Never got paid though. I would love if others did.

So lets see, 30% goes to Steam, 45% goes to Bethesda and whats left to the “modder who actually needs the money” is… 25% yep

Yep, total bullshit. Why are you bringing it up though? We are in agreement here.

Are you okay with paying foreign corporations to exploit the work of the “kid down the street”, keeping the vast majority of the profit?

No, why? As I said in my first comment, they shouldn't get a cut. I'm not sure why are you are bringing these arguments to me, as if I ever disagreed.

Before you start typing ‘but other companies wouldn’t charge so much from the modder!’,

Why would I ever type that, when I only support paid mods where all of the money goes to the modder without middlemen stealing a share?

If you WANT to pay for mods I really need to ask, what is stopping you? If you actually care about the modders getting money, many of them have ko-fi/patreon platforms where they actually keep most of the money you give them

Nothing, not long ago I bought a Kerbal Space Program mod for volumetric clouds from a guy called Blackrack. It's a paid mod only available by paying him on Patreon. It looks amazing and I think it's great he gets money for it. Which is why I support paid mods and don't like when people are against them.

There is nothing stopping you from paying for mods, now that Im an adult with a job I do pay for them often.

Not sure why are you against them then. Based on your comments I think you are not against paid mods, you are against companies like Steam or Bethesda taking a cut. Which is exactly my position too, so I'm not sure what are you actually disagreeing with me about.