I don't see it that way at all... say I can pull 5lbs per plant at a dollar a gram that's $2,240.....it costs an outdoor grower much less than 30 cents per gram (my indoor crop including all yearly spending is 37cents growing landrace sativas not maximizing my shit)
And before i grew indoors I grew year round in west tx
So that leaves him with $1568 in profit per plant.....I could dedicate as I said 10,000 acres of my portion of my family ranch and easily easily have 1,000 plants and adequately take care of them(they don't take up near that much space) ...1,568 could be cut to- paying for trimming, 500 per plant...1,000x1,000 is enough profit for me.............I could see it easily selling for a dollar
In your scenario where you some how came up with 17 dollars a plant, they were still profiting a dollar per gram
If you can work it out to where you profit at least 50cents per gram you can get rich
When your working on the large scale that's how money is made..out here farming is huge whether it be pecan trees or grapefruit or cotton etc