For sure. I understand how much it costs to run a download site for The Sims 2; been doing it for years.
For what it's worth, none of the "pay" sites that I know of is making big profits. I would never belittle artists for wanting to be paid for their work, but I do encourage artists who want to earn a living with their talents to seek a different venue; there just isn't enough money in the market to earn a living from Sims stuff.
Relying on donations alone can be very risky. My two sites (Suns Sims and The Pearl's Chateau) are currently $3,219.70 in the hole. That's $3,259.70 in expenses vs. $40.00 in donations.
To the best of my knowledge, only one big for-profit site other than Electronic Arts is making a significant amount of money from The Sims 2, and it sanctimoniously calls itself a "free" site.