I can’t answer the first question, but developers and artists are expensive. Here is a quote I found online
As of 2020-12, CIG has a total of 695 staff. 512 of whom are developers. As of July 2023, 1100 CIG staff are working on Star Citizen, not counting third party …
At an $100000/yr salary, a team of 1100 people will cost $110mil/year. That excludes other business costs or any third party company they may contract for various assets, for example music.