It is kind of an all-or-nothing proposition. We just have to hit that sweet spot of a really cool product/game/characters.
And I agree that being a "cool start-up" has some advantage over corporations, too.
Sounds like you're banking on winning the lottery. If you want to be a world famous creator of this, then that's what you should aim for. However if you want to run a business, and allow yourself to work full time on this, then you don't need to be a rock star. You can, in fact, support your business fulltime without having to 'strike gold'.
You mean that with a good marketing strategy and a self-sustaining business model, we don't need to have "the next big thing" in order to support ourselves and do this full-time, right?
I am a little confused by your question about marketing. Do you think marketing and a business model are optional? You aren't going to have a mega hit or a small successful business without marketing.
That doesn't mean you must act out scenes from Mad Men or do boring PowerPoint presentations, you can be unconventional, like notch's "oops my server is broke, everyone gets a free copy", or talking about your business model on HN.