they estimate the operator made around $8,000.

the network could have started operating as early as August 2022 and may have made as much as $100,000

I know very little about this stuff but it seems to me that if it is a Russian as implied, it looks like a lot of work for that amount of pay off.

The real money could well be from the use of the tools being sold, rather than all this paid for distribution. But then why not just do that?

Or, as seems most likely to me, there is another, less fiscal reason for the activity. Russian state backed hackers exist.