The point about the $1 tiers relates to Patreon's business model, not anything unique to the access granted tier by tier by any one creator. As of today, there are something on the order of 200,000+ creators on the platform and over 6 million supporters. The platform takes anywhere from 5%-12% of supporter's contributions, plus a % of one-time donations. These 'forgotten' recurring donations are literally free money for the platform; what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so creators benefit as well. But it's not the creator's business model.
The people who got the richest during the California gold rush of the 1850s were not miners and prospectors. It was the people who set up the businesses and housing to support the miners and prospectors.
I honestly don't think there's anything really special about it. People subscribing to some kind of service and not canceling their subscription, even though they technically don't use the service anymore, has been a thing for decades and it happens everywhere nowadays. In most cases it's certainly part of the calculation, though. If everybody who pays for the gym, would actually go there regularly, you wouldn't be able to get your workout done. Then again, those who go regularly would pay quite a bit more, if those who don't go wouldn't pay.
Last but not least, I don't think it's unique to the $1 tier, given that for example ICSTOR doesn't give his patrons anything at the $1 tier and yet Milfycity still seems to make good money after years without updates. So there'll be quite a few higher tier patrons around, who pay for not getting anything, too.
