they probably all expected to become so wealthy it didn't matter what people thought. Onlyfans is like a modern day gold rush...except it seems way more feasible. Out of the millions of simps out there if you can get 1000 of them to spend $10 a month, that's six figures. 2-3 years ago it felt like every girl on the planet was about to start one...normal women I knew personally were opening pages.
Except some women make millions to get naked...others do it and barely make enough to call it a hobby. Then you have women who make hundreds of thousands to post "lewds" or bikini pics essentially.
Not 100% sure how they pull that off, but they're getting bank.
Marketing.
As much as people, and especially have a hard-on for epousing content creators and such are overpaid, humans hate boredom. Entertainment is one of those industries that are infinite in the possibilities, and ironically one can churn one from derivative concepts. I mean, you said it yourself, millions of women got the same equipment, but only a few are able to eat. In the sea of millions, one has to build a personal brand to stand out. The fun thing about it is that, you can adda few tweaks to someone else's formula, and rebrand it as your own. Art is derivative in nature, so it's just the nature of the game.
The example above is essentially is clever use of tension. We know we want to see her naked, but at the same time, the moment we do see the goods, the dopamine high has a fast approaching expiration date. Most sane people would bounce and look for something more gratifying to get their rocks off. However you have the few that are willing to stick around to see if the model will eventually take the plunge into more hardcore content.
The crazy thing is that if the OF chicks are smart, even after they finish with adult content, they can find way to pivot. Violet Myers has and still is doing underneath the sun, and has managed to pivot to gaming and anime. Multiple streams of income at onece, be it appearances, fan meetups, streaming, collabs. Content creators in general are pretty resourceful and usually have their hands in multiple things, not just videos.
If you just go out and shows ass and t*ts on day one, it's going to get old quick. However, if you build a brand that can immerse a viewer into a parasocial relationship with you, then you can print money.