Patrons feel the need to defend the developer because she(?) is a woman and they're pulling our the white knighting. They're invested in the project because they've been loyal supporters of the developer for months, if not years. If the project goes bad, it reflects poorly on their personal ego and self worth, because they would be fools for investing time and passion for something that did not bear fruit.
I personally don't mind "milking" Patreon developers. The patrons who get "milked" decides whether it is "milking" or "supporting", and quite frankly folks who don't pay don't get a say.
But blatant lies about the progress or software development standards crosses the line for me.
The amount of reworks, convoluted UI, promises, delays, and the excuses given for delays makes me think the dev spends a minimum amount of time working. And when they realize they haven't done anything that month, they make up excuses, usually related to "accidentally deleting the work" or some bullshit excuse, for their lack of progress that month.