I think my answer would be: besides the possibility to pay for a work, there’s usually going to be that social aspect too - where a creator will probably still enjoy people playing their games (even if it’s the free ones).
Plus, I think things kinda cycle around, where not everyone’s going to be able to afford to support creators at any given time, but the ones who have money and are able to… do. And even some of the ones who can’t pay immediately, might still do it in a couple of years.