Dealer Haters

Where does the cynicism toward dealers come from? While there are plenty of examples of dealers 'screwing' artists, the vast majority of these are heard 2nd, third, fourth, etc hand. More importantly, the facts in these stories are never the facts. The few dealers in NYC, London, and Philly that I have met seem so genuinely interested and supportive of what their artists do that it makes these 'terrible tales' all the more hard to believe. Having spoken to a number of artists supported by commercial galleries, they seem to contradict this cynicism as well.
So why are artists in a small secondary market fear-full of big bad dealers taking advantage of them? Most artists in Philly don't have representation agreements and don't even get a whiff of the kinds deals that major markets create. This attitude seems to perpetuate the proliferation of non-profit spaces in Philly, as well. While I don't begrudge non-profit spaces, having spent some time working in one, this model doesn't support artists in the long run. I'll get into non-profits in depth at a later time. For now, lets just say that while most artists worth their salt laugh at the romantic ideas of what others think it is to be an artist, the romantically pervasive idea of what it is to be a dealer is needs to go away.