I am not sure about other examples, but isn't it just "winner takes it all market" in case of professional athletes? Fans want to see their favorite player and that brings in money. Meanwhile everyone else will be paid peanuts.
No, thanks to union bargaining the other players make at least millions in all of the major professional leagues. This is in large part due to players being transparent with each other about how much they were getting paid, which led to the formation of the players' unions several decades ago, and to the subsequent stratospheric rise in player salaries.
The point is that wage transparency enriches all of the players, not just the good ones.
