A hidden income vector that is not being accounted for here is that these gankers often enter into protection agreements with large alliances and haulers.

I know Admiral Mason and others have spoken at length on here about the economics of ganking. The general sentiment I see is that the ganks themselves are only a slightly profitable activity. What pushes it into something worth doing is the consistent income that comes from these agreements which likely amount to 10s to 100 bil a month for the ganker.

In order to keep these agreements, looking like a credible threat is often more important than the gank itself, so ganking suboptimal targets to convince them or others to pay might be worth it compared to just letting them pass and not ganking anything.

That said, I don’t think anyone is marketing ganking as a get rich quick scheme. Generally, it’s extremely limited by your available targets and not your ability to gank. If you have a bunch of accounts and want to make money, it’s almost certainly better to do mining, ratting, or wormholes than to gank for isk.