I would think so. A patent is a tricky thing. It protects you legally but it also means you have to share the design publicly. Enforcing a patent is expensive. So if you don’t want to figure out the distribution, etc I think you will not earn much on the idea.
I think you should go ahead and spend the absolute minimal amount possible to get it patented if you have the $'s. One... its pretty cool to say you have a patent; and two, maybe some day one of the big players will actually produce and sell something that's close. That way you can find a patent attorney that will sue on a contingency basis and you may end up with a lifetime royalty stream. I don't remember the specifics, but I think back in the day this played out for a small inventor that had the original patent for intermittent windshield wipers. He sued the big 3 and won big as I recall. Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns