I made a better scan from my copy of Setting the Standard

That jpeg looked so much better on my phone. . . .

He wrote The Hired Hand, too, IIRC

Well, I don't know that that's 100% true.
😜

I saw that in the logo, but in every related text it's the traditional spelling. . . .

100%

There were a few gigs I turned down because I just didn't want to draw a project where certain things like multiple starship designs mattered or multiple players' had approval over likenesses.
Life's too short and comics pay too little

For the art alone, im looking forward to try Inio Asano's SF assassin manga, Mujino Into the Deep

I'd likely assemble a proper studio. I recall another pro who had at least 2 to 3 people on team for the B&W art production - one on 3D and computer assets, another on digital assembly of pages from various hand drawn and digital pieces. So, enough to employ three people

The comparison the mangaka working outside that grind - even with Fujimoto's non Chainsaw Man books - is stark.

A big shock to who? Certainly not any living artists.
maybe it's a shock to people who expect all estates to be heavily raided for anything controversial by prudish inheritors

That's more about the appeal of the style and writing, the level of drawing itself never really wavered in Akira.