Many creators mentioning they lost hundreds of their patrons suddenly and patrons confused as to why their payments are being declined. Patreon is such an old company that hasnt done anything to improve their service for years while the CEO makes youtube videos and seemingly nothing with the company. I hate how much of a monopoly they have in the space, they clearly have no vision for improving their website or app.
You don't need it, but its a convenient website to let people save their info and support people financially across multiple professions all from one account
Many creators use PayPal or similar to let people just one-time pay through said creators site or app, but Patreon/Ko-Fi/etc. Allow a little more without needing to do all the work yourself
You gave another corporate middleman as an alternative to needing a corporate middleman.