Out of curiosity, do you think people go into these things with the intention of scamming? I don't think Tim.E did, because he put a lot of effort into what's been released. It's unfortunate because I think he could make way more money by consistently delivering content, because he clearly has the talent. People that go into making these supporter backed VNs should really bring some people on to help them for when they inevitably get burned outThere is a timeline of how this starts and ends. Dev releases good game, gets chummy with community. "Things happen to dev and excuses start flying" Progress slows down. Dev ensures people that everything is fine. Progress is no longer shown on Patreon. Dev continues being chummy. Gets free 4090. Dev vanishes from F95zone stops being chummy with community. No longer posts on Patreon and retreats to their Discord server and you never hear from them again. The sad thing is this isn't the 1st time a dev has done this in the exact same order.
Defenders gonna defend.