Invoking Occam's Razor, I think that most people who come into the open-source community, promise the moon, and open a Patreon/paypal, actually believe that they can make a difference where so many others failed. They've just vastly underestimated how hard it is to accomplish their promised goal. Then they get defensive. They use the newly-discovered complexity as an excuse to keep accepting donations, and put projects on hold without telling anyone, and move on to a new shiny area where they think they can make a difference. Sometimes they actually do eventually find a goal that they can accomplish, and deliver.