You don’t think empty stands make a difference in a gate driven league?
First off the NHL is not nearly as dependent on gate as it use to be. It is still significant but not nearly to the degree it was even a decade ago. The league had record revenues last year despite the fact that most Canadian teams had substantial reductions in their local revenues due to covid.
The value of the Oilers has gone up more than 5 fold since Katz bought the team. That's a ROI of 13% annually. Owning the team also allows him to benefit from the arena and gives him say in local politics that also benefits his broader businesses. If the teams attendance dropped by a few thousand this would not impact any of this. It would hurt operating revenue of course but it would not
You also need to remember that merchandise is mostly a league shared revenue. The only merchandising revenue that goes directly to the team is the sales in team owned venues. If you order a McDavid jersey from any other source it goes under league wide merchandising deals.
Finally, there is no way that the Oilers will have "empty stands" because some of the most rabid fans get pissed-off at the team.
Now as an individual you have every right not to support the team. I was a season ticket holder through the 80's and most of the people I knew eventually got fed up with how the team treated its fan base. But that was about 10 times worse than this team treats its fans even as bad as it might be now.