For me if PBA players are earning as low as 30k and some are not getting paid at all it indicates struggles 100%. Possible reasons could be poor management (like change the current commissioner) or a drop in the league's income. To fix this they might need better revenue sharing, more sponsorships and financial rules to ensure fair pay. Improving the league's structure and marketing can also help financially.
PBA is not struggling in terms of finances. Way back pandemic, they even stated that they could afford to play for 2 seasons with a really costly bubble conference. The PBA is backed up by giant companies and those companies own those popular and talented players in the league.
KIA and Blackwater can't pay their players the same as big giants in the league. Therefore, these players have to work for their improvement for them to be able to be scouted by giant teams. That's the reason why small teams in PBA won't grow as competitive because those talented players who got drafted by these small teams have no choice but to accept a better offer by giant teams. Loyalty is useless if these players will only paid small.
I think there should be a standard of salary, because if these two teams can't pay their players, they can only get a team that aren't competitive, which overall make the PBA not a balance league.
