In that case they should pause their patreon or lower the price when they cant work on their game instead of abusing a system that automatically takes money from people every month regardless of the work that's being done on the product.
It all boils down to both sides of the equation, the customers and the dev, that is.
How so? Well, let me ask you... if you are paying a monthly fee for a "service" (I know Patreon isn't like that, but for the sake of the example let's suppose it works like that) and you're not getting said "service", why even keep paying? It's like a no brainer at that point and the dev isn't and shouldn't be responsible for babysitting people on how to spend their money.
Granted, that doesn't mean the dev should not care about it either. Devs can either pause pledges (like you suggested) or even charge only for major updates, like someone else has said above. And let's not forget notifying their Patreons via the according means what is happening. If I was supporting someone, I should have info on the progress they're doing with the project I'm pledging money month to month for and any issue/change of pace should be notified so I can make a decision on whether or not keep supporting them.
If for example, the game I'm supporting is going to be left out (even if not entirely, but let's say it has priority below 30%) from the focused "dev time" for a couple of months, I would really like to know about it so I can decide whether or not support it during that "off" time. And yes, I know these pledges usually help the dev handle monthly expenses as it's their full time job for some, but I vow for more thought-through expenses from the supporters, especially when the project they are "funding" isn't moving.
The Doc has always said "It's not an obligation to support me" and I applaud that, the guy isn't victimizing himself so you support him out of pity and even thought this doesn't mean he can't do more in regards to how he handles his Patreon, it also means that whoever keeps supporting him while also bitching about the delays and whatnot (while informed about the current status, mind you!) should be clever enough to make a decision on whether or not keep that support each month, otherwise you're like a cat kicking itself in the face and wondering who the culprit is.
