It would be great to have a (serious) Patreon alternative. And the article is an awesome description of what that should provide at a minimum. Aside from the ludicrous web design continuing - and continuing to cause problems, there is more that an alternative should provide:
One issue is of censorship. Patreon is in no way content-neutral. If your creation can possibly sometimes be somewhat controversial - and there are many ways that you can be controversial in the US - then Patreon is just not a solid base for your income. Your patrons might absolutely be there for you, but Patreon won't let that happen. Which also makes it not a solid base for patrons.
Pro tip: Patreon has no meaningful competitors,
and also it sucks, so there's a huge opportunity
for somebody to kick sand in its face and take
its lunch money. But to do that you would have
to understand what actually Patreon does that is
worth it to creators to allow Patreon to take 5%
of their proceeds (and then pass on to them a
second 5% in payment processing fees).
[…]
1) Pseudonym support.
[…]
2) By-works funding model support.
[…]
3) Non quid pro quo patronage
[…]
4) An audience relationship management system, ideally one with an API one can build against.
”
All four are a lot more than they say on the tin, worth the read.
One issue is of censorship. Patreon is in no way content-neutral. If your creation can possibly sometimes be somewhat controversial - and there are many ways that you can be controversial in the US - then Patreon is just not a solid base for your income. Your patrons might absolutely be there for you, but Patreon won't let that happen. Which also makes it not a solid base for patrons.