Apart from a few really high-profile authors, I'd suggest that readers are looking for books, not the people who wrote them. Therefore, to sell my books I want them listed alongside other similar books - not sitting on my webpage all the way over here, out on their own.
I think the market is split on this. If we look at the other Creative fields, we see that the Creators are increasingly becoming celebrities in their own little ponds. So there is definitely a desire (demand) to follow and support specific Creatives. We can look at this segment as one with a high degree of consumer investment. An example of this would be when fans travel to see a band multiple times for each tour, another would be Patreon supporters. This is also the Thousand True Fans segment.
But we also have the commodity market, where the author and even the quality of the book take a backseat to convenience and price. These books are typically less ‘polished’ (literarily competent) - and since there's no market expectation that they should be - it's all okay. This market is characterized by low consumer investment expressed as high fungibility.
The key difference, from a business perspective, is differentiation. The former market expects something different, something special, even if it's just a new twist on an old idea. They also want to be appreciated as fans - they want to participate.
The commodity market necessarily rejects differentiation. These books need to be seen as being representative (exactly the same) as the last positive purchase experience the consumer had. It's why certain tropes/trends get played to death. It's why most pop music sounds exactly the same.
The really important part of all of this analysis, again, from a business perspective, is that neither is more or less virtuous than the other. One can make a lot of money with the copy and paste approach to publishing, just as one can by capturing those thousand true fans. The opposite is true when analyzing the artistic merits of each. Art is furthered by original content (differentiation) because it challenges the consumer and forces them to think, to ask questions - questions encourage participation. On the other hand, commodity markets are best served by avoiding anything new, precisely because we don't want our customers asking questions. Questions create doubt.
I believe that it’s critical for authors to know which market they're serving.
**Yes, I realize that in reality all of this is a spectrum, and that there are special cases where commodity market authors acquire large and ultra-enthusiastic fan bases, but my points above are about the broader market and the salient strategic approaches for each.
