It’s disappointing Paul Grundy has not said anything. He helped launch Lloyd’s career and supported it along the way. In those circumstances I don’t think it’s honourable for him just not to say anything in light of what’s happened.
As to why Paul Grundy claimed that Lloyd could have made more in other businesses, I don’t think it requires that he either knew Lloyd well or was making a guess. Another possibility is that Lloyd boasted to him in those exact terms and Paul simply believed what he said.
In a certain way perhaps it is possible that translation business could have made more money than the EJW YouTube channel. But this ignores the fact that it would probably have required far greater skills, commitments, obligations, and deadlines to paying customers, and a heavy schedule of work. Lloyd can’t even make his regular Zoom calls on time to his top tier donors. So in theory a translation business might have worked, but in practice it’s obvious why he preferred the YouTube channel.