Surprised to see "Supporting Creators" on here too. I thought Patreon (and others) had made meaningful progress on this front.
We need, probably more than in any other use case besides general social media, a federated solution to patronage. We cannot let Facebook et al happen again with crowdfunding and recurrent subscription services like Patreon. The kickstarter space has opened up to several options including the original Kickstarer, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, Fig, etc. That is a healthy competitive ecosystem and Kickstarter went public benefit so their general dominance in the market is less dangerous for it.
Patreon sits alone, and has been growing exponentially for years. They acquired their only ever major competitor, Subbable, in early 2015. Kofi is about as close to a competitor as they have, but its not the same thing in the slightest because its not automatic which is a fundamental part of what makes Patreon work.
The mindshare of creators Patreon has acquired should be terrifying to anyone who can see the writing on the wall about how this will just lead to a hegemony of Patreon controlling all the amateur and hobbyist and even some semi-professional small creative / online business ventures. And unlike most companies their revenue is plastered right in their face - all they need is a breakout moment into popular culture, which they really have not had yet - the number of people actively supporting anyone else on Patreon is still a small percentage of the whole Internet user population - but if they got that consumer breakout moment they would be unstoppable and way more directly dangerous and harmful in how many people are now making careers out of having a Patreon.