I largely agree with the general sentiments about Phil's greed, but I don't think it's only about the money. Money is always a factor to some extent because Phil is greedy, but Phil latched onto the KC crew before they ever did any collab with him. That's how he joined their orbit in the first place, he was being a Derich in their chat because they were mocking ReviewTech and taking passive aggressive jabs at Phil. But Phil wasn't making any money being in their chat, and I don't think Phil had the foresight to think they might do a collab.
Phil wants friendships...but Phil's definition of friendship is very different from what the average person would use. He definitely views friends as what they can do for him, whether that's money or ego related. But even with Sidescrollers, he was giddy and acting like friends after the initial stream, even though they weren't giving him money. It was only when his chat convinced him that the interview went badly that he finally acknowledged it.
I think it's because of how desperate he is for a redemption arc. So he is still getting something out of the friendship, gratification. But it isn't just money, and we've seen Phil throw loyal paypigs under the bus before and ban them, even when they were donating pretty substantial amounts to him. It's probably like...80-90% money for Phil, then 10-20% a weird ego thing. Phil will "joke" about it, but he loved the kingly persona, and he's always wanted to be taken serious and have everyone treat him like he's an expert at everything, whether it's streaming, some fandom he's pretending to be a part of, fighting game (or gaming stuff in general) politics, etc.
