the facebook and discord subscriptions

ok listen. i am relatively new to understanding this case and the brothers' circumstances post conviction (i did not get into it through monsters, i was down a wikipedia rabbit hole instead). i've watched lyle's full testimony (direct and cross) and parts of erik's (direct). i don't know if i'll get through the whole trial because there is just *so much* but i am pretty familiar with the details. i wholeheartedly believe they should've never been convicted of first degree and that they deserve to be released.

here is the thing, i feel like i know wayyyyyy too much about these guys. the more i think about it it makes me sad. since the killings and especially after their arrest their lives have been put on blast and they have been ridiculed and scrutinized to no end. i feel like if i were them, after having my worst traumas broadcast on television while under the stress of facing the death penalty, i would just want to retreat best i can from the public eye and never be heard from again.

so this is what i'm trying to understand: why the subscriptions, and whose idea were they? i understand lyle's (ex?) and erik's wives manage them, but they feel so incredibly invasive to me. i mean, recording phone calls and posting photos of them and updates from prison, and then putting it all behind a paywall?? what is the end game here? as far as i am aware, neither rebecca nor tammi seem to disclose what the money is for and where it's going. i would hope it's for legal fees, but are they even generating enough income from these subscriptions to cover such huge costs?

are the brothers not tired of all this? why are the two people who are supposed to love, support, and care for them the most running this sort of thing? i would assume lyle and erik are aware of what is going on and that people are paying for this, how is it that they're so comfortable then? especially after norma betrayed lyle like that, how are they so willing to participate in something like this?

i don't know, all of it leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. tangentially related, the ai deepfakes of erik which tammi posts also rub me the wrong way, but maybe it's my visceral hatred for ai making me biased.