But now I look back and I read, "I have trouble feeling bad for..."
Did you silently edit your comment, or did I accidentally misread it? I meant to respond to the topic of someone failing to empathize with another human being, which is a completely different conversation than someone failing to feel pity for another human being.
Imagine if it was just there, without being negotiated. Not a large enough amount to meaningfully affect the budget, just enough for huge successes to give a payout.
If you're worried about someone else getting rich from your work, while you get nothing, but it's impracticable to get royalties because the work will be used to create various derived works in various unforseeable ways, then perhaps the thing to do is offer them, in return for an immediate cash payment, non-exclusive rights for ever, but exclusive rights only for the first five years. You'd probably have to put something in about the purchaser licensing back to you any other necessary rights (e.g. trademarks) to make this work, but it might then mean you'd get a second chance at negotiating five years later. In the case of the cover of a successful record, either they come back to you five years later with more cash, or else you sell your remaining rights to someone else who wants to make T-shirts or whatever. Or you donate the image to the public domain if that's what you prefer. I'm suggesting this approach not so much as a business plan but as a way of avoiding irrational feelings of frustration or indignation, but it might also be a good business plan in some cases.
Personally I like non-exclusive rights. It helps avoid orphaning of works and ridiculous situations in which it's impossible to republish a book unless you can get 19 people to all agree and give permission because that's how many people might have inherited a share in some required exclusive right.