It's both evolution and revolution. Photographers last century earned very little until they died. We've gone full circle. But like any industry there is always opportunity and a photographer with good business sense will find that. (Much like finding the farrier when you need one). For instance, last week I did a series of engineering photographs for HP. Really good money and no way you would find them on the web. They need to do stuff every month and there is a mountain of work out there in similar industries.
By the way, they tried doing it internally but could never get the lighting right for printing.
And why shouldn't pro's get discounts on photographic gear like everyone else? That's really got little to do with the skill levels required to take good photos. Just makes good business sense and I haven't heard any pro complain about an amateur getting a discount.