Hardly "most greedy" either.
Taking a royalty means the dude pays KO out of the profits he makes -- no profits, no royalty.
Taking a royalty is the least demanding imposition on the dude. KO only gets rich if the dude gets rich.
Also, it is the most complimentary (for what that's worth) in that it shows KO's confidence that the dude actually has a good chance of making some money.
Other way around.
Generally-speaking, a royalty payment is off the gross revenue/sales before expenses. Ask any franchise owner or tenant in a mall - they have to pay the landlord or franchisor their 3-6% royalty off the top and/or another 3-6% for advertising royalties regardless of the business' other expenses. The royalty payment is an expense itself based on gross sales. So if you're a franchise owner renting in the Eaton Centre, you've got to pay royalty payments to Cadillac Fairview in addition to your rent for mall advertising and then your franchisor for franchise fees and a separate royalty for the franchise's own advert fee. Once those monies are paid, you can begin to pay staff, inventory, loans and other expenses.
On the other hand, an 'equity' owner only gets paid when dividends are declared by the company's directors and dividends can't be declared unless a profit is actually made after all expenses are paid (including royalty expense payments). No profit = no dividends paid to common share owners. (Preferred share owners may have a different deal.)