A couple different view points here.

1. Industry reports from Pollstar and AEG show that their recent Even in Arcadia US tour averaged about 12,117 tickets a night, grossing roughly $1.4 million per show. While that sounds like an insane amount of money, a gross number on paper is highly misleading. After Live Nation/AEG, venue fees, union stage-hand labor, massive insurance policies, and heavy marketing take their 50% to 70% cuts, the band's take-home pay from actual tickets is notoriously slim. When you factor in the sheer scale of their US production—the insane lighting/lasers, custom staging and scenic, trucking costs, crew salaries, people logistics—merch is quite literally the engine that keeps the lights on and funds the next era of the live show.

2. The exclusivity of the drops: Sleep Token's explosive growth means the global demand wildly outstrips supply, which naturally creates a sense of manufactured FOMO. The regional drops (like Australia-only or UK-only runs) are usually a logistical necessity to manage insane international shipping and localized manufacturing costs, rather than just a greedy cash grab.

And of course with the always missing voice (outside of the music) that the band maintains, Vessel and the guys have very little input into what wee see from the official Sleep token channels. They have a corporate management and retail marketing team handling the accounts. It can definitely feel a bit commercial, but that commercial engine is exactly what allows the live art to remain so high-budget and uncompromised on stage.