If you are going to argue that other peoples' arguments are void, please make sure you are right. First of all, the dev's remark about losing money might/probably means that he is losing money in general. He makes investments in coders/writers or he spends a certain amount of time developing his game instead of working another paying job. If his current patreon subs don't weigh up to that lost money, he IS losing money in general.
Second: you're argument that people weren't gonna pay anyway is ridiculous. If a grocery store or electronics store would offer you the choice of either pledging towards buying their stuff or getting it for free, most people would go for the free option. It doesn't mean those people - if not offered a free choice at all - would forgo the thought of buying groceries or a TV alltogether. That's just ridiculous.
One of the only advantages a developer gets from releasing his work on a website like this one, is the free publicity for his game (you were partially right on that note) to convince a part of that audience to pledge to his Patreon. Most people only make that pledge if they can be convinced that there are benefits to paying instead of getting the same for free (like I mentioned above, if there is no difference, people would opt for the free groceries/TV/game instead). The foremost benefit a developer can offer is early access to his game. But if that benefit is gone due to early leaks on this website, he misses out on potential subscribers. Which is about the same as losing money.
Please have a little more understanding and respect for people's time investment in a product you obviously enjoy but don't even have to pay for if you really don't want to.
I did make sure I was right, because I am right. Now you are just assuming things to make your argument sound better. I don't think he spends that much time with this game considering the timeline of when he updates it and how much content there was in the update with how long it took to come out. That's where he is losing money if anything. Not if an update gets leaked early.
You just decided I was wrong and crafted stories to corroborate you being right.
Yes the people who were not going to pay regardless are not going to pay regardless, who would have guessed. Those are the people you can't say you are losing money from because surprisingly they wouldn't have paid regardless.
People who are here on this site are looking for free games to begin with. So people here are not the target audience you are describing.
He doesn't miss out on potential subscribers, because the people who find the game here will still subscribe if they want to do so just like before, because they want to support the dev and those who wont, still wont.
There are people who pay devs after playing their games finding them on sites like these, those people are not who I am talking about. Those people are what the free publicity is for. Because lets face it, there is no other place to really show off your games.
Maybe some people view early access as a good thing, I don't. I can wait a month, doesn't matter to me.
If that's a devs only way to reel in subs aside from actually making a good game and have a consistent release schedule which is by far the better way to get people to pay you money.
This dev has a good game, he falls short on all the other points though. If life prevents you from having a consistent release schedule that's just how it is.
I have both understanding and respect. Thank you very much.