You're right. Having more patrons translates to having more cash and that's it. You would hope that the extra cash is put back into game development but that's not always the case. Work ethic and ability are two different things and you would hope that the cash helps with both but, again, not always the case.
That said, considering the change to a hybrid required a pretty big coding change and unless you work with Python on a daily basis, it's not an easy task. To be able to render, code and create a story line by yourself is quite difficult and if you're able to do all of them then becoming a dev would be an option wouldn't it? Until you've experienced that and understand how long it takes to create something like that, it's best to appreciate it's still being worked on.
Compared to other games, sure it's been a while but I'd encourage to all who think it's been very slow progression to try being a dev to understand the amount of time and effort required to create content.
