Yes, but they may not be concentrating on a particular program in a particular month and not give it exposure because something else is performing better at the time.
This must be happening a lot to this program because the demand of sending at least one player or not get paid is a way to fix being ignored by people who already have a player base.
Also, temptation to shave is quite likely high in such a setting – it must be very tempting to remove a couple new players from an account that then yields nice money that doesn’t need to be paid. On that level, it is more profitable to hit the larger affiliate.
But – rgeardless of big or small – this is a bad policy and we should not tolerate it in any case.