Since leaving Obsidian, Avellone has worked on Divinity: Original Sin 2, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and even Dying Light 2.
As for Avellone's commentary about the sales of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, you can check out Fig.co's Investor report here which mostly indicates the funding revenue of Pillars of Eternity II:
Since our inception, Fig has had four of the top 10[...]
Fig.co Archives
Wyrmbyte has taken their post-apocalyptic Hawaiian RPG to crowdfunding platform Fig. The open world hybrid RPG shooter Nightmarchers plays a bit like Far Cry meets Zelda, and is set on the island of Oahu after a cataclysmic event leaves the archipelago cut off from the rest of the world.
No one is surprised.
Fans of Swery's magical game developing skills have the unique opportunity to share in the The Good Life's financial success on Fig.co. The Good Life requires at least $1.5M USD in funding to achieve Swery-level greatness, and fans can support the campaign through traditional reward based backing as well as through investing in Fig Game[...]
Fig wants to cover those costs so developers can focus on finishing their games with the funds they raise rather than use them to cover the Steam Direct buy-in.
As for why Fig is willing to take on the cost of Steam Direct, their press release reads "At Fig, we don't make money by running crowdfunding[...]