From my understanding, Patreon is the secret sauce the keeps the whole train running. This is true of not only smaller Youtube creators, but big channels, podcasts etc. For example, the Are You Garbage? podcast apparently brings in $134,000 a month...a month! Bigger operations have way higher costs, so AYG isnt necessarily pocketing all of that. For perspective, Liteweight has 6k Pateron subs, and AYG has 25k. It wouldnt suprise me that Liteweight is actually making quite a bit from Patreon, especially given her low operating cost. But seriously, I think Patreon memberships are bankrolling a large portion of content creation in general.