Yeah, well. Maybe you should only look for finished games, then? There are many devs who still share that vision, I even 'work' as a translator for a team that has released more than 10 completed games in the last 10 years (with little financial success, mind you, but that would be dragging this discussion onto offtopic zone). The thing is that Patreon works fine enough for those who understand what they are paying for: they are not paying for the final product (although they can subscribe one month just to 'buy' it when it's ready) but to let devs keep working on their games. In WaL's case, it's not even a subscription model, since the game is totally free and Patreon rewards are fairly underwhelming (some spoilery pics, voting rights, and a chance to see your name listed in the game's supporters gallery). Basically, you don't get anything else than the personal satisfaction of supporting someone whose work you appreciate. And sure, it's obvious that when gamedevs manage to get enough support to make this for a living the incentive to actually finish those games is questionable at the very least, but that's what everyone signed up for, and patrons will always have the last word by voting with their wallets.
You mention WaL's devs should have released a completed game first, which is a financial gamble since they wouldn't get a dime until the game was ready to release, so they would have needed to work several years on this hobby while also working on their daily jobs (meaning that none of us would probably know about WaL yet, and chances are we'd never ever knew about it since they could have dropped this 'unborn' project for whatever reason - like having a second child in 2022- to focus on their regular jobs and no one on Earth would have noticed); then take their one-time shot to get as much money from sales as possible, then probably keep working on their daily jobs for some stable monthly income while they sort out the newborn or whatever situation they'd be facing at the time, rinse and repeat. I don't think that's a reasonable choice to make for any family when they have an alternative that allows them to get their somewhat stable monthly income from developing their game, as it happened here when they gained some good traction with the first couple of installments. Patreon actually allowed a talented artist and a decent yet inexperienced writer to leave their jobs and live on their pet project, which is quite a nice thing if you ask me. You are demanding hobbyists to take a professional or even industrial approach, going from one project to the next, hoping their sales would remain high enough to make it worthwhile, but that's neither what this kind of people usually look for, nor what they wish, nor even what they are capable of. If they have more stories to tell and feel like it, they can try their luck with a second project, but some games and stories can be on almost eternal development, much like soap operas.
On another note, WaL devs did let their audience know that the project would be taking a lower priority for some months, and the way they constantly communicate their progress and shortcomings lets people decide when to stop paying them. I guess they could have paused pledges for some months, but around 20% of their supporters back in 2022 have already left by themselves.
