It is a fair comparison though.
The NFL in anything like its present form only dates back to maybe 1922. The wisdom and actions of administrators between then and now have made it what it is.
You may say we're not the USA, and OK we're not, but if our game was even 1/10th the size of theirs, we'd be minted compared with the present penury.
You may say we don't have enough population or #whatever other excuse you want to swallow, but then just look across the globe at the NRL - Aus has much less population and of that, the main NRL areas are narrow yet they have also learned how to make a reasonably big busines out of their sport.
The blunt answer is that over here, the RFL have been rubbish at their job, and the game is on the bones of its arrrse, for which there is no excuse. Even in places like Canada, there are visionaries who can see the potential in the game, and are willing to throw money at it and actively go for it. We're sadly stuck with this lot. If you transplanted the administrators of the RFL into the NFL, how do we all think that would have gone?