To follow up on the whole watermarking thing, for those that aren't aware.
The 'high tier' patrons are each given unique watermarked versions of the game, so that the developer will know which patron shared said watermarked version. We don't know which photo(s) contain said watermarks, there are so many ingame, but of course the developer knows... also maybe some AI algorithm that looks for hidden messages/watermarks in photos, but said AIs aren't going to tell us, this being a buccaneer forum and all.
So as I said, I'm good with waiting for the lower tier release, as it won't do any good if our 'heroes' are locked out of future updates because the developer figured out which patron shared the latest version.
The counter to this of course is to 'burn' Patreon accounts, but $30 each time gets expensive, and since almost no one here is chipping in for a 'burn an account to get the latest version' fund...
In the meantime, I'd suggest watching SVS Comics and other similar sites for shares there. Of course, it's hard to tell if the version shared there is actually the latest version without downloading it first, and if you don't have a 'paid' account for the various download services they use, well it will be one long ass download.
In short, just be patient. The lower tier versions will become available soon enough, and as I said, there are a bajillion other games being shared here on F95Zone that you can go check out in the meantime to keep yourself busy.