Why is this sad?

For independent comics creators, drawing the book then going to Kickstarter to handle pre-orders is a great thing. I've done it twice and will be doing it again soon; it's a great model that lets you generate some excitement around a book release, and maybe get some new fans as well. If you go to a comics convention, I can bet that a lot of the books you'll find being hawked by their creators were funded via Kickstarter, with roughly that model. You can only say "here is a pitch, give me lots of $$$ to spend a couple years making it" if you have one hell of a track record, and a huge fan base.

Kickstarter is a business too.

They get a kickstart by having successful brands use their platform. You could could call it sad and unfortunate but it is inevitable.

Kickstarter seems to be considered mostly as a marketing tool by startups nowadays. My friend and his hardware company is in the middle of a campaign right now and he told me that they aren't really hoping for much more than breaking even - they're doing it just for marketing and thus increasing the amount of money they can raise from investors.

Unfortunately, yes.