Only thing I'll disagree with ya on is the advertising part. I wouldn't have found most of these games if it wasn't for F95. Sure there's other sites you can go to but most have crappy download hosts like fileboom or Keep2share (looking at you svscomics) and most of them just pirate from here anyway. Does this pirate model of gaming help/hurt game development? Idk, maybe? We're not talking about a AAA gaming industry here yet with Q&A teams, major media for press and advertising, entertainment expos that showcase upcoming games, etc so I think sites like these are good for the indie feel to all of this (talking about the adult gaming world).
To the point you were asking about why people give so much to one dev - To me personally, it's more of an acknowledgment or appreciation to
Braindrop for a) creating a game people enjoy and b) consistency. I've pledged a lot of devs (and I'm sure others have as well) that just burn you or ghost you or disappear without any word to their patrons. Or their quality drops, updates are sparse, and ultimately you're left thinking why am I supporting this person? So seeing a game developer who communicates with people, keeps a timely schedule, delivers on promises, games good, etc is probably why people would be eager to pledge someone.
Are there other games criminally under supported? Of course (recreation, hopesgaming, and nottravis come to mind). End of the day though, people are going to support what they want to support though. Is that always fair? Nope, but welcome to life I guess.
