Yes, I have to agree that there are exceptions.
There are puzzle game for instance that are much better then
Dweeps, but sold fewer.

Also I agree that the Dexterity formula isn''t working the right way.
Also it isn''t fair to track independend developers to give them false hope that they gan live possible from there creations.
A short investigation shows unfortunately the opposite.

So you can earn pocket money and if you got lucky circumstances
it''s possible to live from the earnings. But in most cases
you will get only pocket money. Perhaps there are some months with extreme high sales and there are mostly months where the sales are low as pocket money.

Also you need to count if you are a game indie only the sales
of sold games. So not sales from other kind of software, like
office automation, utilities etc. On that way you can get a clear view if it''s possible to live from indie games.
My short answer is No. It isn''t possible.
There are always people who got luck. But when the same people
are trying to help other people with publishing there quality creations,using the same system and the sales are not in the mentioned range. There is something wrong. I played some good published quality puzzles, they were already market (promotions etc.), and if the sales are in the first month in the lowest scale end in the upcoming months extremely low, the formula isn''t working well. Only fact is that you will earn every month
some pocket money. So it isn''t far to advertise as $1000-10.000
scale. But that is live...

I don''t think that Dexterity is bunk. I think that is just marketing. It is good to have some healthy skepticism about any marketing.
Maybe you''re right about not being able to live off of your product that much. For some people, this is supplemental income anyway.
Of course, it has been shown that some very successful games have been shareware games. Download.com should show that Pretty Good Solitaire has been getting massive hits. Someone on here once calculated that if even 1% or 10% (I can''t remember which) of those downloads turned into sales, that is massive money being made from a solitaire game.
And what is this formula of Dexterity that isn''t working?