I wonder how much longer this business is going to stay the same... it has to come to a point when vector artists give up and stop uploading because the return per image is just too low (I'm getting closer and closer to that point every day...  ). What will happen to the microstock sites then? In the long run they're doomed without new images.

Will they raise prices? Start deleting hundreds of thousands of the ugliest low sellers and get rid of all the amateur contributors? Or will we all be ousted by talented illustrators in developing countries who are willing to work 15 hours a day for a few dollars?

As contributors we could of course "protest" by stop selling at the cheapest sites (like Yuri did a while ago), but there will always be too many masochistic contributors who like to give away their work for nothing at sites like Shutterstock and Vectorstock.

Yeah, you're right. It's the same for everyone.
Whatever happens it's hard to see any bright future in this business...  There are just to many people creating the same types of photos/illustrations.