Honestly, if you’re posting about thinking about researching and possibly developing, you probably shouldn’t bother. You’re hardly the first to float some notion of this, but I don’t think you really understand what it takes or how it works; the comments are generally no better so far.
Unless you’re exceptionally wealthy, it just isn’t feasible. Patreon works because of its scale and name recognition. Patreon managed to succeed because it receives millions in venture capital. You don’t just start operating an international platform of any note without serious backing. Without that, you get a niche money-sink. Hell, you’d be surprised how few big internet platforms and services even turn a profit; most operate at significant loss because investors play the long game. Your platform could never hope to attract venture capitalists. In the meantime, there’s staffing, maintenance, and operational costs to consider, not to mention a miasma of insurance costs and liability concerns. Throw in the difficulties of transaction processing and host jumping to keep up with bans, and it’s easy to see that it just isn’t a practical idea.
Setting aside the financial realities, the sort of platform you suggest will attract a handful of desperate fringe projects. Even with the resources to pull it off, you’re looking at running a donor site based around bestiality and rape fetishism; with luck, you might get one or two minor mainstream developers, but the bread & butter would be those who can’t go anywhere else. Before long, your “unrestricted” site will be known as a cesspool, because it only has the most objectionable content. At that point, other creators won’t want to use it. Look at the reactions to the mention of Hatreon; clearly, its reputation is solidified, and you can see why so few would want in on it. An upstart attempt to allow extreme content will be saturated in it before it can build any diversity. You have a small niche donor base for a small niche cadre of developers who, because of the base, likely just try to outdo each other in extremity and little else. With service interruptions, being kicked from one server to another, legal concerns, and constant payment restructuring as processors cut the platform off or go under themselves, these developers are probably better off with a personal blog that has a “Donate” button.
In short, it’s unlikely you can get the necessary capital to even start, and if you somehow found the money, the business model is self-limiting and averse to growth or diversity. It’s a bad idea.
