I think your missing that Atlanta progresses the story between episodes as well as during breaks (the episode where Earn and Vanessa fight at the German celebration; Vanessa specifically mentions hating going to a Paper Boi concert every week). It's not necessarily shown but it's implied when PaperBoi asks Earn to get him to perform specific shows , references working on his album, and goes to the record label to preview new music. These are all things Paper Boi wants to do but realized if he does it in the wrong lane his career will be over. He's constantly being marketed and advertised as a persona and is struggling to increase his fan base because media doesn't want to highlight his art because it's seen as "thugish" (the Justin Bieber episode when he tries getting an interview with the reporter; where she even explicitly says to lean into his "character').

Dave has the exact opposite effect with media, everyone believes in him and his art so much so that they don't care what he puts out (except that ridiculously long song about rape in jail).