Something I have to continually fight is my own perceptions. Because, I agree with you, I think Patreon is well known, they should be crazy profitable, etc.

But if you look at the larger scheme of things: How many Podcasts have a Patreon? How many YouTube channels? Is it even on their radar? And the answer is of course -> fractions of a single digit percentage.

Even compared to some other "competitors" they are quite small - consider that there are individual Kickstarters that have raised more than Patreon's profits over the past year.

They need to massively ramp up user/influencer acquisition: sponsoring conferences, booths at tradeshows, paying people to use them, a big "success team", etc. etc.