I personally know multiple pastors who can barely afford the basics, much less luxuries, and who work side jobs to make ends meet. They have soberly made difficult decisions to live out their faith.
Setting aside the question of whether pastors (Charismatic Christian, Evangelical Christian, Christian, or even Muslim) are a particularly hypocritical bunch, megachurches are fundamentally different. They can be exploitative even if the leader is personally honest simply because they're breeding grounds for exploitative peer pressure entirely unmoored from traditional institutional and doctrinal anchors.[1] Power corrupts, and megachurches centralize a ton of power into a single individual.
Cults of personality are qualitatively different from your run-of-the-mill leadership position. If the Roman Catholic Pope tells the global Catholic community to do X, not many people will unflinchingly do X. People don't invest themselves as heavily in abstract doctrine as they do individuals. A megachurch is almost by definition a cult of personality, as to grow and thrive at such scale it takes an exceptionally charismatic leader in whom people invest themselves. And the doctrine of these churches tends to be particularly loose and particularly predicated on the exegesis of the leader, claims to biblical textualism and literalism notwithstanding.
[1] Yes, traditional institutions may have intrinsic exploitative characteristics. But they also have intrinsic mitigations that constrain exploitation, otherwise they wouldn't have persisted for so long. Like a virus, the most virulent ones extinguish themselves rather quickly.
"When it comes to clergy, new Catholic priests, which includes bishops, can expect a salary somewhere in the mid-$20,000 range, with median salaries varying slightly depending on geography. The highest median salary for a new priest is in the Midwest, at $29,856, while the lowest median salary, $24,960, is found in the Central region, which spans from Minnesota to Texas. The maximum salary for priests ranges from $29,744 in the West region to $44,417 in the Midwest."
Now this is Catholicism, so it's going to be regimented, along with mainline protestant ministries.
But even for the more 'American flavours' of Christianity, I suggest the average income is probably lower.
I'd consider these hustlers about the same level of the vast number of people who hustle products on their Instagram accounts which is to say some do very well, most don't.
Oddly, I'm not sure how much authenticity and revenue correlate for this, or any other field of service. It's the 'marketers' that tend to win.
[1] https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/08/11/how-much-do...
edit, this says the median is 45k https://work.chron.com/much-catholic-priests-paid-12915.html
Also, even if they didn't - they are not making a lot of money.
On average, it's peanuts.
This notion of 'rich minister' is not 'a thing' - it's exceedingly less common than in any other line of business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_organizatio...
LDS net worth 67 billion, vatican, 30 billion etc. etc.
Obviously there are extremes on the other end, but for those with 45k disposable income, who can make investments and own land, no "vow of poverty" should be assumed either.
the bureau of labor statistics lists the mean salary for clergy as $50k, with a range of $25k to $80k as well.
Again, $45K is not 'tax free'.
A 25-80K salary range is fairly meagre for the United States.
You're making my point for me: this is not a career for those who're aspiring to make a ton of money.