You just have to pay by major updates and not monthly, so it's not nearly as bad as you are saying. If you get the one dollar support, you will probably spend like three dollars on his page by year.
Problem is that i already once wanted to tip a developer but then he didn't release any update for months. (like 5 months and we just get a new version with just one more quest) And it was a 2D game without any render to do or even fighting animations.
Supporting when the game still does not have a lot of content is frustrating imo.
Astrid is a really well made game but i know the limit of the corruption trainer kind of game and it doesn't offer much freedom to the player : you need to reach this amount of this stat to unlock this and you can't access other things until you unlocked it etc... That's quite linear and actually if you don't act as an easy girl as Astrid there is not much to do in the game. You can't make progress with the school, you can't make progress on side quest... you just have the scene where you're forced after the restaurant and the tavern job who still allows you some hentai content without having to act like a slut.
And i don't like the fact that you can be submissive AND dominant AND exhibitionist while still acting naïve and prudish in certain circumstances.
I'd like to choose to make the character either completely slutty or not Naïve but with some self respect or completely Prude and to get special event regarding what path i choose and not being able to be everything at once.
All that to say that i'm not ready to give money for the game at this point 'cause i feel that it will reach a certain limit that won't satisfy what i'm looking for.
Like most of the rpg it's actually more like a novel than a real Rpg