Last time I checked the creator of VueJS is making some money from Patreon. But his monthly Patreon revenue is less than what a typical freelance software dev makes and he's the creator of the second most popular frontend JS framework, so I don't see that much potential for making a living on Patreon from niche mac apps.
If your app is adding value I would keep charging real money for it. Maybe check out a software subscription model for support and updates.
I like what Jetbrains is doing for their IDE's where you pay a fee for a specific version and 1 year support & updates. After that 1 year you can continue using the same version, or pay again to get another year of updates and support.
Yes, and it took him 2 years as the developer of one of the biggest JS frameworks with thousands of users to reach that level. And even then, over 80% of his Patreon comes from 3 backers at 2000/mo and 18 backers at 500/mo. I assume those are all companies. The revenue he has from individual users is peanuts.
If your app is adding value I would keep charging real money for it. Maybe check out a software subscription model for support and updates.
I like what Jetbrains is doing for their IDE's where you pay a fee for a specific version and 1 year support & updates. After that 1 year you can continue using the same version, or pay again to get another year of updates and support.