There are more in China and Russia, both of which have big art scenes, and plenty of very rich people willing to splash the cash on prestige canvases.
The number of people making a living as visual artists is somewhere between a hundred and a thousand times that. There are a lot of people selling decorative, mass-appeal art, with varying levels of skill, but no serious pretensions to cultural significance.
Earnings follow the usual power law. Most get by, some are more comfortable, a handful do very well indeed.
I don't think any of them would seriously consider taking on $400k of debt.
I think we're getting to the point where universities are basically just running scams in these creative areas.
You'll get some value from a degree program, especially on the networking side. But - as OP says - it's just not worth saddling yourself with a lifetime of debt to pay for that access.
This kind of education used to be free/cheap, and that worked better for everyone - except the loan sharks.