The concept of payouts is new to me personally. I have competed in jiu jitsu and submission grappling tournaments for a number of years which i think is decent basis for comparison (niche sport, lots of passionate competitors). Typically entry fees for these are 80-120 bucks, you cut weight, fight 3-8 times, and if you place you get a medal around your neck. This is true all the way to the open men's division.
Having been involved on the organizing side of several martial arts and various sports tournaments over the years, I don't think most sports tournaments are a valid basis for comparison.
For one thing, tournaments for most sports typically have significant expenses that most disc golf tournaments doesn't have: paid officials and rental of the venue being the most obvious. On top of the rental fee, venues typically charge for event and security staff (mandatory, and often at overtime rates), and many also require renters to use and pay for venue-owned equipment (tables, chairs, electrical equipment, signage, etc.) and services (set up, dismantling, janitorial, food, traffic/parking, etc.). Rental fees for a even a small venue can easily run into the thousands of dollars for a two day tournament, and it's not unusual for the event services fees to run into 5 figures. And private venues typically have much higher and much more stringent liability insurance requirements.
Other than NTs, Majors, and maybe a handful of top tier tournaments, I don't think expenses for disc golf come anywhere close to those numbers.