Peter Green destroyed his career with his drug use. Ironically, Fleetwood Mac would never have become the huge band they were in the late 70's and early 80's without him leaving, because Lindsay Buckingham would have never joined the band if they had a guitarist, and without Buckingham, Stevie Nicks wouldn't have joined either.
Fleetwood Mac is another example of a band that benefitted from having their big hit albums later in their career, after they had already established themselves and were able to negotiate a reasonable record deal. Other than Mick Fleetwood, all the core members of the band are worth north of $50 million even though they haven't released a studio album anyone cares about in over 30 years, and only had really 5 really big selling albums, although one of those was the monstrous Rumours. Most artists make almost nothing off their first few albums, but if those albums are at least moderately successful, they can really cash in on their later work.