Patreon sounds like something relatively easy to replicate. Effectively every utility implements what patron provides. It's essentially just scheduling recurring payments, with a discussion forum attached. More behavior like what we've been seeing Patreon do lately, and I can see larger creators shifting to hosing their own patronage services. Essentially the same reason why EA, Blizzard, and even more niche game pub…
I think the real problem is upstream: The payment processors.
These companies set the rules and everybody else has to play along or risk being cut off from customers.
Any competitor will face the same issues sooner or later.