I'm not saying this reflects badly on Fig per-se, just crowdfunding in general. I'll never do that again.
I would always assume anything you crowdfund will disappoint you in some way. Plans change. When you crowdfund, expect the general direction, not the exact outcome.
Prior to Proton, gaming on Linux was hit or miss. Many games never worked, some worked like crap, some required convoluted incantations of Wine settings and specific game versions and then only on every second Sunday.
Now? I install games via Steam's normal interface and 90% of the time it just works. And most of those that don't work use some non-Steam DRM that won't run under Proton.
A bonus point is that it reports your usage as running under Linux so publishers and devs get accurate numbers for how big their potential market is on Linux which is good in the long run for getting native Linux games.
And although it's unlikely to continue too much longer, Epic has set an interesting precedent with funding $10-off coupons during sales out of their own pocket. If you're at the classic $15-25 indie game price point, there's a nice possibility there for your customer to get $10 off and you to still get your full cut.
So a cash-strapped game developer can go into the final stages of their game launch pre-paid and knowing they're already fiscally on track before it's even out. For indies that's a no-brainer.
That's assuming of course that Epic chooses to accept your game in the first place. My major issue with discussions regarding the EGS is that everyone discussing it talks as if every developer has access to what it's offering, which is not the case even in the slightest.
My understanding is that right now Epic's submission pipeline is very manual, there's not a lot of self-servicing. So they are focused on submissions which move the needle the most for Epic: Exclusives, free titles (also available to indies), and then AAA games. I believe they've suggested the wider release of EGS for more developers should be sometime this year.
The EGS is much more akin to a console ecosystem. You don't have to use it, except perhaps for the occasional exclusive. But lots of people feel that there is value there.
But then I hear that devs are getting cash up front and a bigger cut (I think it's like 85% compared to Steam's 70%) of profits. I'm happy that a developer may not need to crunch, or at least possibly not worry that if the game doesn't sell they'll be bankrupted.
I'd really like GOG to get a little better about this considering how great Galaxy 2.0 is and their general "No DRM" policy. It would become my default but Steam is still king for now
For developers: A huge lump sum of cash (although this certainly won't continue forever)