But, nobody is forcing them.. So I mean.. Its self inflicted.. So its a bit hard to garner sympathy.
Very few people are "forced" to do any job - unless you count things like "needing to pay rent and buy food", in which case we're all being forced. Either way, I'd say they deserve as much sympathy as anyone else.
Imagine losing an entire week of revenue for the company. That's a big deal to them.
Especially because their revenue is directly dependent on their popularity. If their content isn't available, people will just move on to the next best thing.
Everyone's time has value. It's just more visible in certain cases. Streaming and other modern entertainment stars are not the only ones who have this problem. If fact it's true for everyone.
I guess it's kinda like with terminal disease. Everyone will die and noone knows how much time they have ahead, but when you get a kind of tangible upper limit then suddenly this awarness materializes, even though it shouldn't change much. I think the parallel is that when you can estimate how much money you could get for your time it's harder to discard it. If your time were worth the same without your knowledge it'd be easier. It's just matter of being aware of the number.
What is a bit different, as you say, is that they're catering to a fickle audience. If they take a month off or ratchet back their workload, a lot of viewers may move on to the next thing.