Also being one of the featured games on the front page helped him gain about 200 patreonsYou seem to completely misunderstand Cheeky. The reason he asked for delay in leak is because he wanted to reward his $10 patrons in a way that they get the game first. It has nothing to do with him worrying about his income being hampered by piracy.
You're right that quality trumps piracy. That's why Cheeky's patreon has increased by 10% in the last 24 hours even if his episode 9 update is leaked early. Again, his request to delay leak is not because he's worried he'd lose patrons. It's simply a nice gesture of his trying to reward his highest tier patrons.
Cheeky has been nothing but a class act as a dev. He suspended patreon payment in December because he took a holiday break. He refused to make higher tier because he felt he couldn't come up with proper reward to justify extra tier. He hired people to help with the project even before he hit the goal so that he could improve the quality of the game.