He managed to get work with some bigger names (or at least I think bigger names), so if he had a bad rep, it didn't slow him down too much. I always figured he was just another late 80's / 1990's degenerate who had nothing else in life, but could get it up and finish on film, so he traded away the minimum wage job moping floors for being a mope on film.
I figured James Deen was the relative of some greasy Jew who has money in the business and got him in and keeps him working. I figure mopes are either supposed to be muscled up guys who are eye candy for the ladies, or the opposite so they can make the scene even more deplorable for the whore. Deen is kinda neither, but I guess it's his treatment that keeps other dudes watching him. Doubt he's ever fucked a civilian that his jew money didn't buy before hand
I think you have these two swapped. TT has relatives with old school porn business connections and Deen comes from suburbia/academia. Also, it's Deen's female audience that set him apart from the pack. He was the first to have young web-savvy females in his fan base.
And I doubt he's fucked many civilians either with jew money or without. Porn guys see every load launched as potential income and don't tend to blow them frivolously.