There is some truth in that but also people are lazy and will always take the easiest way and even if you go back 5+ years you'd see the same behavior. People keep doing this because it works, simple as that, why work harder when you can work smarter? Let's say you really put in the work and create a lot of content, you could release it all as one update every other month... or you could release it as content twice a year or even once a year and people would still pay out.
You're vastly underestimating how long it takes to make content. As a solo artist, it takes me an entire day to make about 10-20 renders. There's just no possible way to make a quality update every other month.
Some devs accomplish this by hiring a team and having an assembly line system, such as College Kings, and the quality turns to shit.
Race of Life has about 700 subscribers. Not sure how much money they make but there is at least a writer and artist to pay, neither are making "thousands of dollars", doubtful they are able to do this as a full time job.
How many hours can you render scenes after you work 8+ hours at a regular job, come home, spend time with your friends/family, eat, do chores, then maybe have a few hours to work on your game before sleep?
People simply need to pause their Patreon payments and stop worrying about exactly when an update comes out and enjoy Adult Visual Novels for what they are. A niche art form which exists almost completely independently of corporate control. This means irregular updates and sometimes games that get abandoned... but it also means amazing games like Race of Life get to do what they want with their vision.
