I would imagine most Patrons are on the $20 tier as a minimum. That’s the one that gets you “exclusive early access”. The $5 tier is kind of pointless and the $10 isn’t much better, the only added bonus is that it gets you a shout out on their vlogs when you join.
I don’t have a problem with the Patreon model because it allows you to support content creators, and thats fine. It’s the “benefits” as you go up the tiers I find ridiculous.
Also, the podcast I support has no tiers. You choose how much you want to contribute.
I didn’t join the Patreon campaign for the rewards. I just wanted to support it to help it be financially viable for the content creator.
So it really annoys me if they paywall something that should be part of the core product, and the “exclusive access” should be part of the core product in my opinion.