I don't know what to tell you that could satisfy your internal struggle here. If you have a style worth stealing it will be stolen. Copyright doesn't protect that.

For what copyright does protect, it is only enforceable if you have the funds to protect it.

The system wasn't designed for people like you, it was literally designed during the same time in which only the wealthy were able to peruse art. It was created to protected monied interests, not the commoner.

If you expect to make a living on your art, you need to plan to collect earnings up front. Commissioned work is exactly that.

This idea that you're going to create some initial idea and then coast on it for life does not align with any reality.

Sometimes, if you create something new and interesting, you'll end up with a following and they will fund your endeavors but there will still be copycats and you either waste your life perusing that or spend your life perusing your art. You cannot do both. Paying someone else to peruse your "rights" doesn't change this equation, you'd be creating to fund the protection. Enforce it too hard and your fans will turn on you, as the original post here illustrates.

There is no winning move via copyright that leads to the land of riches. That's the problem. That's what copyright is bullshit.

It's not designed to protect us but so long as the monied interests can convince us otherwise, we'll go along with it like temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Always convinced if we'd play the game too, we could win.

The system is rigged and it's not in your favor. Whatever appears to favor you is a facade meant of not to keep you playing the game.