I am also not a fan of progress stuff being behind a paywall, however, if existing supporters are no longer happy with the progress they can stop supporting. I don't know about you, but just because I spent money on something one month, doesn't mean I'll keep doing it for eternity - so the reports do "fall under scrutiny" by those who have it available to determine if they want to continue to support it. And clearly, based on the number of supporters that left for this game, many of them found it lacking.
There's still a lot of information available on this forum, and I imagine other similar ones, about what's been going on with the game's development. I wouldn't support this game no matter how much extra money I had to spend right now - because I don't feel like they're making enough progress (whether that's due to personal lives, incompetence, or other factors doesn't matter to me at this point).
However, just because that's how I feel, I don't think that means everyone else should feel the same way. Other people are welcome to feel that their money is needed even more because of the trouble that has been happening, and because they're losing supporters, and they really want to see the game move forward. That's a valid way of looking at things, even if it's not mine. There are a lot of valid ways of looking at the situation.