This image from the article is so true it actually hurts. The number of times our company has had a conversation like this would boggle the mind. We are not even a mobile game. We are a free to play PC title and we still get this garbage.
It's interesting that publishers for Asia don't have this mindset. They are willing to actually put money up front, something that no non-asian publisher has ever offered us.
(on top of that, it's a damn solid game too.)
It's hard to sell to marketing though, apparently.
The day to day business stuff is handled by our Managing Director (listed as Lead Designer on that page).
If you release your game yourself to a limited market, prove it has good revenue & retention stats, then shop around for a publisher, you get much better terms.
The (non-asian) publishers still come out of the woodwork to offer you these kinds of garbage deals. We just don't take them. The fact that we were already successful is why these leeches turn up in the first place.
These "publishers" are essentially glorified and very expensive user referral programs.
Why would you sign a publishing deal if you know that your game has awesome retention and big revenues?
The idea is to share the risk.