That’s not quite true, because most artists on Patreon offer different tiers, with specific rewards for each tier. I’m not a lawyer or anything, but that clearly seems like some form of transaction to me, albeit perhaps not a very well defined one. Patreon also gives you the option, when you unsubscribe from someone, to mention that the creator was not posting as often as you had expected, which also gives the impression of more of a customer/client relationship than a pure patron/artist one.
Comparing the Patreon situation to an individual buyer trying to commission a piece for $5 is also quite disingenuous; obviously, Patreon more closely resembles crowdsourcing in that respect. It’s like you’re saying the people funding a video game on Kickstarter can’t complain about anything, because it’s impossible to make a game with a mere $10 or however much they donated. No, one person contributing $5 a month shouldn’t be treated as though they were a commissioner, but collectively, the body of patrons definitely should have some say if they judge their money isn’t being used properly.
this is exactly what I mean when I say people lost the ability to understand the relation there is to it, let me make it as simple as possible for you:
if someone is performing on street and 200 people and come throw 5$ to that person, does it give any of you the right to demand anything? have you ever done something like this before? if not then do not bother just leave this post and get on with your life.
People these days cannot comprehend the basics of life.
Patreon gives you the option and different tier to create for one thing only, for people to support and offer more than basic 5$ that every pedestrian walks by, and for the Artist to show more special gratitude.
Basically you walk by throw 5$ the performer says thank you, another person walks by throws 50$ in and the performer bows, says thank you, and plays a special note for them.
this is basically glorified street performance that is moved to worldwide web, Artists no longer perform on street, people no longer carry cash around and get to see/hear only specific local Artists.
if you truly believe you have anything different going on then I assume one day in your life you helped someone on street then went back and asked for something in return, or you never done the act, ever.
then again as I said people cannot comprehend this, they complicate these stuff for themselves and others, and it will only gets worse because these days people have lost their sense of social life as it was before, as soon as anything gets a new label they think the whole deal has changed.
and to clarify, Patreon gives you the option to withdraw your subscription with that description just for the same reason as Twitch asks you the very same question, to evaluate their artists for search results and their patterns, try to talk to Patreon support and tell them X Artist lost their quality and you want to force them to improve it because it was not worth your $, see how that goes. and if you are still in doubt that you are doing any sort of transaction and deal in there, do yourself a favor, use their work for yourself see how that goes for you legally, see what kind of License you have to the work you believe you "paid" for, let me know how penalty fee feels like.