Higher wages change the price more than you think.
Let's say we wanted to make something that means just breaking even if you scrimp in LA, like $50k/year. That's $12.5k per character (3 months) per person, which is $100k per character without any expenses besides salaries. (Current salaries at $15/hr are around $62.6k per character total.) That's a $40,000 price increase for "no reason".
Realistically we'd like to make more than not-going-broke, so let's say we were making a bad entry-level wage for game dev even though we all have experience, like $65k. That's $16.25k per character per person, so $130k per character just for salaries. That's $70,000 more per character right there.*
I sincerely doubt that people would support that.
As a comparison, to deliver what we're currently doing for the IGG (4.5 characters, excluding Fukua) with poopy-but-real salaries we'd have had to raise around $1,144,000 instead of the $829,829 we got.
* It also highlights how much we currently don't make. ;_;