I'm playing the game but it's constantly saying there's an update available, I'm assuming it's in the way on purpose so you subscribe to the patreon, but it's slightly aggravating.  Is there a way to stop it from popping up?

The update popup is only in the main menu. No there isn't other way. To support my development I have to keep public version behind it's a common practice in free to play games. Thanks for playing ❤️