These are firm statistics. It's well known that only the top 5% reach the $100 payout. That has been so for a long time. It might go up a percentage point or down a percentage point, but that's about it.

As payout on other sites has also generally been at about 5%, my conclusion is that either only 5% write the kind of things that are read, or business owners do some sort of calcuation that only the top 5% earn. I suspect it's the latter.