It does add up, but sometimes it's not about how much you spend and more about supporting creators. I've been on the Master tier for well over a year at this stage because I want Inatari to keep developing. N_Taii had my support on HC3 from the second update all the way to January of this year where I dropped it because I didn't like where the game was going. I know I paid many, many times more than the games would cost on Steam or another store, but that didn't stop me because I was support the developer not buying the game.
Yeah, I am pretty firm in my belief that unless you play 5.2 and 5.4 through as one update it is bound to feel disjointed. Doesn't help that Violet is pretty out of character the whole time.