Don't get me wrong, it's good to see this stuff happening but I think the more we see of it the less effective it will be for the artists and they may have a tougher time doing so well.
If you think about it, you can do a stand up comedy with a cheap at home or at a bar with friends. And upload it to YouTube as a private video and/or use existing platforms to sell video.
They could save a lot. They're only not doing this because they just started taking baby steps away from the existing model. Plus they don't know any better, Louis spent a fortune just to setup that simple website. He could have used existing platforms. If he doesn't know how to use those, then here's a startup opportunity.
The deal is "professionally shot/produced/edited video shot at in a venue with good lighting and sound, in front of a live audience". You're not replicating that for $500.
Minecraft was a huge hit with that model, the others less so.
Delivery novelty may account for a fraction of the overall effect - it's certainly not the central reason for a commercial success.
Minecraft was sold as a preorder when in Alpha, with buyers expecting to shape the future direction of the product as it gets "made". This worked in that case, but not in the iso zombie mess case.
With these comedy sales, the novelty again is in the manner of selling. One big shot, some mob mentality, hype and Reddit. Everyone sharing the moment. The hope is a big pay day, but each time there's fewer people who haven't seen/felt the "trick"/emotion before.
I bought it because I wanted to play it. In its current form.
And any digital publisher worth their domain name is going to offer promotional services.