I dont think they would milk people to be honest I give them the benefit of the doubt. I just truly think they dont know what they want to do. As creators they probably want to continue their project they thought up and designed but on the other side a vast majority of the fan base is upset with it. Seems like they want to try and change some things and include some more stuff people want but also want to stick to what they thought up originally.
I will say that not having weekly updates or atleast some form of communication especially during these long draughts doesnt help them. Give us a progression bar or some sort of chart to show where you are at on the next update so people dont think you are just letting the game die or milking money.
If we assume that they are simply milking the patreon and delaying the updates on purpose, then we also assume that they are stupid and don't know math. The money now is divided between 3 members and not 2 and they clearly had more support when the updates were more frequent. I'm not sure how milking works if it results in less money.
Either way i think the community is not giving them a clear way out. Literally every aspect and it's opposite has been heavily criticized already.
Too much text vs not enough story for a story based game. Sierra ruined everything vs Sierra was the last hope. Deliver more scenes with unique art, because re-uses are unacceptable vs faster updates. The list goes on. Yes, each person here is consistent with themselves, but as a group we will give a backlash no matter what they choose. And people cry "dead game" every opportunity they have. It's true that this site had too many of those, i'd guess only about 1 in 50 games get truly finished, but then we could just jump into the threads of every game and declare it dead and we'd be wrong only once in 50. It's either pointless or a self-fulfilling prophecy which is destructive. It's just stupid and it doesn't help.
Here is what i would do in their place, and i know that i'm biased too:
Multiple progress bars, eg. art, coding, writing etc.. Let the people see what is still missing.
More re-used art and more repeatable scenes. Rewarding the troops, training the hellhound, grinding for some approval, gathering information and so on. The text and art would have slight variations in most cases, but it's less burden to draw and gives the players some action on missions.
Focus on Sabia and the main story for a while. She is the protagonist for a reason and we want to see her.
Sex based mini-game. We have a sex game with mini games (raiding, puzzle, guess the wagon and the whole combat as it is now), wouldn't it make sense to have more that is based on the main theme of the game?
Correct some huge missed opportunities. There is an armor that has shackles, collar and chains as part of it and it had to be worn to trigger scenes in the last patch but all of it has been stripped off before the action? Come on.
And finally from a technical point of view: figure out how you can deliver efficiently. If a two months patch loop is too short and it divides the tasks too much, then officially make it 3-4 months and deliver more instead of being late with every patch.