I just read all the drama on Tumblr and Twitter about this subject. My thoughts are this: (not that anyone cares, but something to think about)
First, The sims team members from twitter (including the debatable "real or fake" message convo) should not be giving any LEGAL advice. It's just "their thoughts and opinion" One of them even stated it was "their thoughts". ONLY the LEGAL Dept of Sims should address such questions and Speak for sims. Those Sims employees are not from that department therefore have no right to say what Sims Legal process/guidelines would be exactly.
Second, Once you log into sims you click to agree to the terms of the agreement. This clearly states in small print, anything created for Sims from outside Sims can be taken, modified, used Ect... by EA. You are agreeing to give all control of/ rights to anything produced to the EA. So, in fact, the statement is that it's the "Creator content" and they have "total rights" to it, which is not actually correct. They are what is called "fanart" you have to use sims in order for it to work. It has no use outside of Sims. This falls under "fanart" and you forfeit rights (once you click on terms of the agreement to play sims).
Third, EA's LEGAL Department has precedence over this subject Since Sims is apart of EA. NONE of these "Creators" are asking or pursuing information from the actual Legal departments of EA or Sims.
If they did, they would realize all their " I own the rights" would be debunked and they could no longer deceive themselves into believing what they are doing is 100 percent ok.
they keep referring to those old screenshots from a) a person who no longer works for EA, and b) a developer who is not a lawyer and it's bizarre. if you try to search that forum post, that entire thread is deleted, more or less implying that it is not an official stance. and that original forum post more or less implies that a small / reasonable donation is acceptable to offset costs. the issue came with
people bloodsucking opportunists abusing what is considered a reasonable donation, patreon's annoying tier system, and these people took it to mean paying for custom content (ie where patreon exclusives came about).
they know their stuff is not worth sticking around for a year, so they keep changing their tiers and offering even less content per month, and their subscribers cling to the hope that maybe this month's offering is worth the money (more often than not, it is not). it's a gross abuse of who patreon was originally intended for. it's upsetting because i see how this site is used by content creators and artists outside of the sims and it's eye opening!
i wish they would go after the worst offenders but it is not financially prudent for them to do so. EA knows mods extend the life of their game (which is why people are still playing sims 2 and 3) so they won't cut out mods entirely, unfortunately. but with how digital IP laws in each country are changing, and how we no longer completely "own" much of anything within this domain, that change might come soon.
these patreon exclusive people know they cannot do much outside of this game, if they could, they would expand their horizons elsewhere like many others have. it's why so many of the worst offenders have resorted to bullying, crying about THEIR PROPERTY (that they either stole or converted from someone else with talent), making rant posts like what graffity did, doxxing and blacklisting ppl who paid for and opted to share their content with friends and others, spending hours sending out DMCA notices, etc. they can't do much else in life nor do they have much going for them outside of this game. and when this game has gone the way of sims 2 and 3, they'll be done.