I'm sure they do pay, especially considering StubHub and the Sabres (and most if not all NHL teans) have an "official reseller" relationship with them. The Sabres STH account site links directly with StubHub.
It's no secret most STHers sell a good number of tickets. Most folks can't go to all 41 games and it helps cover some of the cost of owning them. But it's been going on four seasons now where the average resale price is a fraction of what STHers pay.
So now everyone is losing money. Instead of paying a few hundred bucks or breaking even, now you have to drop thousands to renew. So if it were you, and you dropped thousands on seats thinking this was the season things start to trend up, and it turned out financially as bad if not worse than the tank years, what would you do?
I think the Sabres know they could lose thousands of seat holders and are nervous about it. A few months back they sent a survey out asking how likely you are to renew?
The downside of this practice is you end up with some games full of opposing fans. We all hate Leafs fans invading our building, but keep in mind we do it to other teams too. But in my opinion if you lose those seat buyers you end up back in the late Rigas era with a half-empty building, and I think that's worse.