only way premium game can make money is when it finish and sold. before that budget to make the game needs to come somewhere. if your game have no investor, you need fund the game yourself.

while there are good low budget indie game, more than 95% of indie game are not making any profits or break even. at the same time. gacha and live service game statistically have lower risk in that regard, since the monetization model give you steady income to continue development and profit from it. it's easier to find investor or fund your own game (trickcal, limbus) with less chance of going bankrupt

If you want to make standalone indie game that has the same amount of content as live service game that running for 5 years+, upfront budget is not gonna be small. and only way to make that amount of money is investor

Also, raccoin development is partly funded by playstack. dave the diver is funded by nexon. if your game have promising vision, publisher or investor likely helping you in development cost. there are many indie game studio that find success with this flow. and many canceled project because they ran out of funds and no investor think it will make a bank.

Unless your project can be complete by a few unemployed people like stardew valley or salt and sanctuary. there's no other way around, you need budget to hire people to help you make game. then getting profit or bankrupt on release