>ML revolutionized translation a long time ago and the demand and pay for translators went down.
This is incorrect.
Translators employed:
2005 - 29240
2021 - 52170
Yearly salary:
2005 - 38300
2021 - 52170
Source - BLS (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm)
Employment growth was ~79% on a US population growth of ~13.5%.
38300 2005 $ equal 52854 2021$.
So pretty much demand for translators exploded while real wages stayed flat.