>Anime and animation is grueling work isn't it? Not to mention the labor practices and crunch are soul crushing.

None of that has to do with animation. It's strictly a problem with Capitalism. The owners of those studios want to squeeze ever last possible cent out of their labor. They could very easily pay their artists appropriately and not assign more than 40 hours of work per week. The end product will be slightly more expensive, but all that needs to be done is slash the amount of trash shovelware anime being produced so that those eyeballs are more tightly concentrated and ad revenue goes up enough to compensate.

If the workers weren't enamored with having that specific job because it has been their dream their whole life, and if they had the ability to walk away from a tilted negotiation table, then all those problems would evaporate.

So using the excuse, "ah, it's fine in this case because that's a shitty job" doesn't work. All jobs are going to be that shitty soon enough. And it never has anything to do with the actual work.