Is there at this point money in even modestly expensive investigative journalism? Getting people there, having them spend some time on site with all the work involved, to produce what one piece week or a month? Will that sort of content garner return?

While on other side, you can rewrite AP or Reuters. Pick some twitter post. Or just throw stuff at AI... Or sit in relatively cheap office and talk to microphone producing hours of content a day. While people throw money at you and sponsors pay for you selling out...