The thing is you can never stop pirates, triple A companies try and fail, wasting millions in the process. The best thing to do is own it, similar to what CD Projekt Red does. They create killer games and don't have to spend millions on anti-piracy. If you make a good game, people *will* support it. Shunning people that play the game, whether it's pirated or not, is the simplest and cheapest way to make sure they never support it.
I agree with some of what you are saying actually. There are definitely people out there that can’t afford the game but still want to play it, or that are just always pirating games, and will be valuable parts of any community. On a finished full-Price title that argument actually holds true.
Where that argument always gets a little weak is that the fact that the version is leaked will not only affect those kinds of players, but it will also reach other people who would have backed the development.
However, I do sympathize with what you are saying, and that is precisely why a free version of the game exists in the first place, getting the attention of everybody, not just the paying people, and pirating the patreon version because you can‘t wait a month to play it will always take away some development funds, leading to the game becoming worse.
You say „just make a good game and people will come“. But you can‘t make a good game without that money. The original version of this game is the best example. Same game loop, same dialogs but I didn‘t pump thousands into the art every month, and how did that work out?
I‘ve pirated games in my youth as well so I understand where you are coming from, but I think everybody underestimates how expensive it is to make good games, and how difficult it is to make money off of games when you are not one of the big players. I know that in the worst way possible. I already had my non-erotic indie games company shut down because of that and I want to think that has actually made me a bit more competent on the topic. I‘ve not had any income for five years while trying to get that game finished, and that game fucking won awards and shit. That game was pirated as well, and I’ve never pirated a game again since that time.
The patreon is quite successful right now, but with all the money I have to pump into it, and 43% of the rest being taxes, it‘s not like I live like a king, and if it dips under certain thresholds I will not be able to continue working full-time or I will not be able to afford more artists, that would be needed to make the game good. For example the next monetary goals are all about getting the main character artist to work on the game full-time, which is something I definitely can‘t afford right now.
Anyways, I do think about these things and it‘s not like I don‘t care about you, but I feel likestill releasing the patreon version for free every month is fair to everybody.