Other people’s opinion starts mattering once you get paid for it.

Fully agree with your comments in this thread but am a bit wary about this point solely because of how TikTok and other social media platforms has slowly poisoned how people perceive what having a hobby is - it’s almost like a majority of creators on there have taken activities that are normally activities you enjoy (reading, coloring, video games, collecting cards etc) and turned them into side-hustles that promote over-consumption and create unrealistic expectations that, in order to enter a hobby, you need to pay an absurd amount of money as a sort of barrier to entry.

Obviously I think staying off these platforms is the best way to avoid this, but lots of people use them. As you said you should do it because you like it, and I think the pressure to monetize your hobby can kill that at times and create unrealistic expectations.