I saw his other games are not free, didn't expect this game to go "Patreon = Beta" approach. So there's not even "Early Access" aspect?
Then I don't see why one need to complain "we don't get current patreon version", as you won't miss anything.
Not a Beta tester myself.
sort of early access since we do get it a week or two(and you don't have to talk to sierra about what going on with it ) before but yeah is more Beta version in that much more closer to in progress things(Like previous bulid aka end of that section rush still had some placeholder values or the ship being damaged switch never got used in 59.0 despite that being why it was made in the 58 version update so got included later) or how the trin calculation in the update before got more stuff added to it because it made sense and people brought the ideas up in the patron comments
though calling it beta is better fit I think since it basically is early version of update where balance is not guaranteed to be final or there might be content blocking bug added in(like 59 version had a one that kind of blocked chapter 3 stuff with the new chapter 5 because it happens in the same area)
Sierra does very often say in some cases because some updates are more beta like than other so some get a you want to keep a save before this or a you may want to wait to play if you only want to play though it once(basically the same thing that every outcome where content form one event is split over multiple updates by being too large where you are advised to keep a save before this because balance is not final till event is fully done
but yeah if you want to only experience the update once and in their most complete form it is best to wait for the public version
and yeah the rules vary some what by game but in TLS case it always was free public release so will remain free
yeah the patron is a kind of does a bunch of things which can be see if people care on it, one of the main ones is a this is what she has been up to every Sunday(be it TLS stuff, OEA stuff, or other stuff), but yeah I have to agree that I see no reason for where is the current patron version because very rarely does noting get changed(either making content easier or harder) or even some times more content is added during the point updates during the patron time with it