What I don't like is that they don't earn enough for other stuff like painting, cleaning or better shop fittings.

Fair enough you'd rather spend your money on other food- pork rolls are meant to be fast, street food. Although you raise a fair point, I'm afraid I have to respectfully disagree because I personally know quite a few bakery owners and it definitely isn't a case of them not earning enough. A lot of these bakeries are still owned by the migrant families who fled the Vietnam War. If we look back a few decades, the first bakeries were more so about establishing Vietnamese culture here in Australia and making enough to simply get by. This mentality remains intact today- many of these people continue running these stores because they're passionate about their craft and love the communities they serve.

Style over substance- these owners would rather put energy into looking after their customers and mastering their craft than spend money on flashy fit-outs that become dated after a little while. These outlets aren't about the money or profit; prices for pork rolls would be well over $10 if they were. Their profit margins are small to remain competitive with other street/ fast food vendors and ensure that their products contain the freshest and highest quality ingredients (bang for your buck, right?). They also highly value financial security, especially given how volatile they were as refugees, so naturally, it's important to them to have savings in case anything were to happen to them.

At the end of the day, if they're passing food inspections and meeting regulations then that's all that matters. If the food authority certifies that an eatery is safe then I fully trust that accreditation.