Short answer: Agree with you, if the creator doesn't have reputation it will be hard to invest time & money in any projects, it's like gambling. Unless he have more projects that can show what he can do, then that way investing in an alpha game would make sense.
Long answer(this answer does not make sense since it's kinda ramble) :
Well agree on the "1.14" thing, I am planning in 1-2 years to start develop some games too, now I learn programming to get a job first, then after having a stable job I plan to make a game which I will work on it 6-12 months and post it here only after it has like +50% content and post the game 100% for free, and Idk from there if I have talent and learn enough stuff to make a decent game I might start a patreon.
(patreon idea is only good when the one who is doing it, does a decent job at creating that game, but at the same time he shouldn't start "patreon" when the game is not even 10%).
So yeah idk, seeing how people think, it's a never good idea to start a project and start asking for money from the start.
The developer should make people invest in the game like 5hours at least, then maybe they would want to "pay", + you if you have history, that you actually "finish" the game, then you'd get patreons.
Also I realised something, sometimes only having time it's not enough to create a good game. Having a job means that you can use your own money to invest in things like: voice acting, designers (fivers) and other stuff like sprite animations. So basically you could make yourself a "game" by investing money and you could get your money back using patreon. And with enough luck maybe the patreon become main job xD and quit the Real life job, not trying to shame on this creator or something, just my thoughts as my "first comment" ever even tho I used this websites for 2+ years.
