The mental gymnastics on display here are astounding.
People buying loot boxes know what they are receiving,
The people buying loot boxes know what they want and, oftentimes, the only way to get what they want is to pay for the
chance to get that.
in any of the many F2P games available there is no extra purchase beyond lootboxes,
There are a couple of problems with this statement. A large portion of this conversation revolves around loot box systems, and the economies to maximize the end user engaging with them, being designed for full-priced, "AAA" titles. Another issue with your statement is that many f2p games also offer the purchase of heroes, skins, mounts, etc to offset the cost of keeping new content coming and ensurig that they can pay for the overhead to continually support the game.
and many patreons there is no assurance that whatever it is you believe you are funding actually gets made, because thats not the point of patreon.
Just went over to Patreon to take a look at some of the most successful pages they have. Randomly chose
Video & FIlm Top 20 and, with the exception of 3 pages*, every other creator has clearly defined goals as to what their supporters money brings to their content. If a creator fails to meet the terms of the agreement the audience pulls their money out. Set up a Patreon, fail to deliver on that promise and then tell your supporters, "Hey, I missed it this month, but if you keep giving me money maybe I'll get around to it next time!" This doesn't even take into consideration that many have set up user pladge levels, much like Kickstarter, where each level comes with direct benefits like access to special post and the forums.
You can feel how you like about lootboxes, but it is patently absurd to suggest that a system where a few who are willing to pay subsidise the many who don't is somehow automatically sinister or abusive, when there are numerous examples of that at work, patreon being an extremely obvious one.
Look, this isn't a tax system, where the government takes money from the people that are much better off to help out the people that are unable to support themselves for myriad reasons. These are deliberately designed mechanisms to maximize payout from a group of people that really want that one Mercy Halloween skin, whom either can't be bothered to grind away for hours, or simply have a compulsion to hit their jackpot. Stop reminding players that the "easy option" is a few mouse clicks away and remove this shit entirely from games, put it up on WB Interactive's website and, all of the sudden, they've set up a gambling site that rewards players with digital goods at the cost of real money.
Patreon doesn't ask for a $40-$60 cover charge before you can even access their site either.
* The three being Blind Wave, Leo Moracchioli and Strange mysteries (they offer a poll).