"The author does not owe anything to anyone"
The people who give the author money to continue developing games are definitely owed something. Not everyone is a free loader.
By pledging $10 you will get access to five different games:
◉ Roundscape Eclipse
◉ Roundscape Adorevia (Completed)
◉ Starmaker Story
◉ Arenus (Completed)
◉ Below Sunshade (Completed)
On top, you will receive an exclusive Discord role with access to new channels.
You are not an investor, you are supporting a creator with their work. The one only thing which is provided as a service is access to their catalogue of games and an additional role in their Discord. There are no promises of early access or additional disclosure of the roadmap for their projects.
Starmaker is already a free to play early access game, and a side project to Roundscape. When the full games is released next year, then there will be an obligation to make a purchase through Steam for example. The "free loader"'s are providing something which would cost the developer a fortune QA and Market Feedback.