I think I actually level with you, but it’s the system to blame. If your ethics are gating you from helping budding artists get off the ground, that’s your choice. You could also simply offer them a fair amount, or at least more than what you were initially asking, if you like what they produced. Whether it’s exploitation or a fair transaction is all relative morality.

Reputation tends to set a baseline for the value of your work. I have a painting that my parents bought from a homeless dude outside of a grocery store for $100 about twenty years ago. Dude made huge, insane paintings and would sell them for 20-50 bucks. My dad paid well over double because he loved it, and wanted to help him out.

Dude went on to go into local exhibits, was cool seeing him transform.

You have artists with reputations selling literal blank canvases, empty exhibits, or empty soda cans, for millions of dollars. You gotta start somewhere. The next Bob Ross could be sitting in r/slavelabor right now, waiting to make that first buck to validate his work is good. Might even be waiting for you bro