I'm sure he still got paid plenty as a co-creator for post-season-7, but I'd think not being a writer for the full run, or being primary cast, would put him earning less overall royalties than Seinfeld, assuming they got paid roughly the same as creators.
But yes, those are likely order of magnitude less than Seinfeld/David get with their backend participation.
I’m rewatching with my wife, who never watched it before, and definitely the latest seasons feel worse. I didn’t remember it this way. Now I understand why.
I don’t think seinfeld was great for jokes as such. if anything, I feel like later episodes were a bit trying too hard to create jokes and over-the-top silly situations (e.g the episode where Kramer sells the real Peterman bus tour and Elaine trying to dump the stumps of the cupcakes)
The episodes that all seemed to culminate perfectly on multiple levels as the credits rolled where largely his doing.
Similar to George learning to walk out on a high note, leading to outsized expectations. And that type of pressure is largely why David left the show.
ETA: If you've never watched curb your enthusiasm, watch a couple of episodes and you'll immediately recognize what was largely missing in the episodes once David left.
I’m not sure I follow? do you mean that he was worried about the show going downhill as it became more popular, so he preferred to leave when it was still doing great?
yes, I watched some curb your enthusiasm. it was harder to get used to because of the improv style, but I enjoyed it a lot. Hope my wife will like it as next step after we finish seinfeld.
I think it was more of not wanting to disappoint himself/others in that role than any expectation that the show would go downhill or was on the verge of getting stale.
But that's just my layman's take.
There's plenty of early era blog posts written on the topic by people more informed than me, though. As well as dead-tree entertainment magazine articles.
In writing terms this is called the "Harold format". David didn't invent it, but he might have been the first person to bring it to TV.
I'm trying to think of what other shows regularly do that.
South Park is the only one that comes to mind.