Look, I may not have placed all the details there, but that doesn't mean my logic is non-existent.
So to make it more logical:
I'm going to assume, Dev has apartment/house he needs to pay, family to feed etc. Dev has lost his job, which he needed because he had it, if he didn't need it, and could substitute the income purely from Patreon and or derivates, he wouldn't be in this situation, now would he? He got back some free-time, which is now spent in stress. Money is finite resource and usually runs out, so he decided to go job-hunting, that takes time, and if he has to do the same song and dance I had to do when I was between jobs, as mandated by country I live in, he didn't get that much free time either.
I dunno if you are developer, writer or an artist, but let me tell you, everything comes to grinding halt when you are stressed over some shit, be it parents dying, your kids in hospital, or you having to face eviction in set time unless you find a way to pay for your home again. This alone would put a damper on dev's creativity, or ability to concentrate on wank-material. Not to mention that We do not know dev's financial situation at all, and the patreon's have been freed, so I cannot tell you if he was raking in hundreds of thousands, or if he got 300 bucks a month. What I can tell you is: this guy has integrity, If he knows he won't be working on his game, he does not want your money either. That's a sign of quality, unlike some games that rake in thousands monthly, only to release 1 new enemy with 1 animation once per year.
For me, this guy is cool, I wish him well, and I'm looking forward to him returning.