Patronship, as its originally conceived (long, long before any of us were born) is about supporting artistic or intellectual pursuits for the pursuit itself. My support of Pandelo is for his work today, his work in the future and for all the great work he has already produced. It is not contingent upon results on some specific calenderized schedule.
(heh, couldn't resist)
While I agree with most of your post, this bit about what patreon is or not, isn't on point, sorry.
Yes, a patronship is exactly what you describe, yet patreon simply has never worked that way at all. It has in almost all cases worked the way that people were promised content (game, comic, pictures) in regular intervals FOR their donations.
That's how it works, whether that's a patronship in the classical sense (which it is of course not) or not doesn't even come into play.
As long as the dev/artist/writer promises rewards for his donations, he or she should better deliver (as long as circumstances don't prevent it, and of course a close family member becoming seriously ill is reason enough to not deliver until you can work again).
THAT IS NOT TO SAY, PEOPLE SHOULD BEHAVE LIKE ASSHOLES.
Pandelo has always been someone who did as promised and not only that, but has created a game that many of us love, yet from some of the comments in this thread, it seems people forget that there are also many, many creators who take peoples money and constantly find excuses not to do what was promised.
Milking is indeed an issue on patreon, what's important for me is being able to recognize when someone is in dire circumstances and not milking anybody or not.
And that's where I see many people here fail and not just those who constantly cry milking, whenever a release date is missed or an update is a bit shorter than usual, but also from those that will just brainlessly defend con artists month after month after month.
Again, my post is in no way about or directed at Pandelo, all I want to tell him is "take care of your mom and I hope she gets better soon." And not because I want a new update, but because I wish him and his family nothing but the best.