Paywall is not allowed period, SimGuruDrake made a statement on the forums that said what I just said as well said that Patreon content cannot be paywall and Early Access should be available after 2-3 weeks.oh i m not talking about piracy. i m talking about fact some creators hide stuff behind paywall for a log period. wich, if i remember good, is NOT allowed by EA/Maxis to do this practice.
The whole Patreon thing was kinda of a "concession" but its neither a rule or enforced, she also said they dont police it but take reports "very serious".
As I said, pay mods was never allowed by EA in any form, including Patreon as the 2-3 week tolerance is still a "non-rule" however since that come from a SimGuru that is very much from EA itself even if not on the TOS, take it as something that EA "unofficially tolerates", when a Content Creator locks whatever behind a paywall they are breaking the TOS, Early Access or not.
Also you can see how they take it very serious considering you have so many CC behind some paywall with that post being made in 2017, in the end dont expect EA to actually do anything about it unless they roll out their own (pay) platform for CC distribution.