Its not exactly fair to compare DM to say EA or Steam and the $60 AAA titles. DM has to pay server fees, costs of manufacturing such as computer parts, electricity and sustain a livable wage while still turning out the same quality product each and every month and any team members wages. Meanwhile steam and EA are releasing multiple games a year with DLC's, subscriptions and merchandise and they sell millions of copies of a game versus DM's ~1300 or so Patreons. I get the point though, I have been a patreon of DM for nearly a year now, it does add up. But if we want Monica, we gotta pay and hope DM keeps going, otherwise no Monica.
Well, of course those big companies also have to pay "server fees, cost of manufacturing as computer parts, electricity and sustain a livable wage while still turning out the same quality product each and every month and any team members wages". They even have to pay 30% to Steam, if they sell their games there.
The other thing I believe is called economies of scale. And of course that makes the biggest difference. But still it is amazing what a rotten deal patrons get relative to buying games from those big companies. Paying about four times more money, they get a much smaller, much more primitive (from any point of view), uncompleted game. And they don't even have access to full content.
Getting updates earlier, access to alpha/beta versions, some developers journals, direct contact with the developers, even some way of participation by higher tier patrons are all fine to me. But that idea of cutting the best content is a little bit offensive to lower tier patrons, who still pay a lot of money. And, interestingly, most developers are able to get by without such unusual provisions. And still make a lot money.