It is 55-45. I suspect the author read some data incorrectly (the YouTube analytics page can be a bit confusing).
The RPM she achieved is excellent (average in many niches is $1-$2), she could have been incredibly successful if she trimmed down her production cost.
She could never have been incredibly successful by cutting costs. She posted a video a week which cost $3,500 to make and brought in $1,000.
If production had cost her nothing she would only have made $1k a week, for something that would have taken up half of her time.
There are very successful people making high budget video and very successful people making shoestring video on YT. She didn't really have the following to do either. The success that she had on YouTube was driven by her following elsewhere, and she only continued losing money for so long because she was motivated by non-YouTube goals.
The RPM she achieved is excellent (average in many niches is $1-$2), she could have been incredibly successful if she trimmed down her production cost.