Does it go something like this?

Content creator posts content on their site that they own and pay to operate. Mega-3rd-party shares links of this content, sometimes posting blurbs from this content, driving traffic to Mega-3rd-party site and (to a much lesser extent) boosting traffic to content creator's site. However, Mega-3rd-party site also derives revenue from this by extracting information from user behavior and user interests, enabling them to improve ad-sales.

Am I misunderstanding something? Why is everyone here so pro mega-3rd-party?

Another question is this similar to remixing in the music industry? Feels like royalties in a twisted kind of way.