Maybe I'm misreading the other comments in this discussion, but it sounds like people are saying that the story in the article is a special case, with elite professional photographers, but this would never work with the hoi polloi 'gig economy' companies like Uber, which will only ever pillage from their workers. (I'm exaggerating a bit here, but this is the sense I get from the tone of some comments. Apologies if I have misread them)

Passing 80% of the gross receipts (less the $1/ride safe-whatever charge, which I believe is for some sort of insurance policy?) does not seem like they are screwing the drivers to me. It seems like a pretty common split between marketplace/infrastructure providers and suppliers.