I Used to Sub to quite a few games that i liked including Trashpanda when he was on Patreon, but i got disillusioned with the whole system when the devs were always coming up with excuses why the game was slow, I've been sick, Real life/work situation came up excreta, i know this can happen but did the devs ever suspend payments for a month while this was going on, nope the kept taking the money, i bet was same for trashpanda he knew he was moving work house so could have stopped taking payments for a month but i bet he didn't. Its to easy to blame people for not wanting to support them when stuff like this goes on.
You have a point, and if you subscribe I also would expect at least regular monthly reports on the work as it progresses. Some devs are amazing at communication some are horrible. I see my support for a VN as support for it giving me a little of what I wanted and the ongoing story is why I remain a subscriber until I no longer think I'm getting what I want from the game.
If you had of told me I would ever be a supporter of this VN when I first saw it I would have laughed in your face. I did keep the thread on watch however and I see the extreme amounts of progress this game has made and frankly I am stounded at the turn around. I will maintain support for at least 3-4 more months if there is communication to the subscribers, and then depending on the next update I will continue it even further.
Trust is built up and a dev can learn from games like Being a Dik and Desert Stalker, Desert Stalker I haven't played in damned near a year or maybe more but I am a sub all of that time, because the dev is active and communicates. I did the same with Being a Dik, until he switch graphics programs and the silver teeth started and the bad hairstyles so I stopped but I'm not upset it just stopped giving what I wanted so I still love the game but I don't support it anymore.
Then their is my all time favorite story VN, Luna's fall from grace, I was a red handed full bore pirate when I was playing it, then the game completed and I realized the entertainment value I had gotten but never rewarded the developers at all. So I went to there Patreon and tossed them $100 for my appreciation of there creation, it didn't put a dent in my financial situation but I'm hoping it helped them.
Right now I have high hopes for Esra and can't wait to see more. My biggest fear is he will switch over to 6 months of the Prison guard and we wont see an update here for a year. My fingers are crossed he doesn't go down this path.