By listening to quite a few of his streams the most probable version seems to be: DC worked for about 10 years in the US animation industry (he mentioned Blue Sky Studios once, maybe someone knows more?) and ended up in a somewhat elevated position. He grew tired of that and it sounds like he never wants to go back to that kind of work. So I think it's somewhat understandable that he doesn't want to end up in that same position of leading and coordinating a team of animators again in his own project.
By now it's seems pretty clear that he wants to draw his own game on his own, unless maybe the perfect partner comes around, and I think people should accept that. After all, it's not like he actively promises to hire more people etc. so it should be really easy for people to simply adjust their pledge on patreon according to what they think the game they are getting is worth. I mean, the size of the team hasn't really changed for years now, so it's not like people don't know what they are getting and can act surprised that it's not growing...