Now, according to Yasuhiro Nightow, 
creator of the Trigun manga, he doesn't get 
royalties on the AMOUNT of tapes/DVD's sold after 
a certain amount per month, which is fairly low 
(and always met, even on slow months...whether I 
bought the DVD or not wouldn't affect him or 
not).

Says you.  If he's collecting royalties based on 
the amount of units sold, it's in his best 
interest for the maximum amount of units to be 
sold, regardless of whatever his "minimum" is.

American sales never affect him, they only 
make money for the company which bought his 
anime. He basically sold all of the rights and 
gets no little to no return on the anime,

Yet his name is still on the copyright notice, 
which necessarily means that he'd be collecting 
residuals on it.

[snip]