Patreon did a study

[gorzek]

You're going to talk me into doing something with my Patreon.

But if you don’t own the fan relationships, then ultimately they’re not your fans. They’re just the platforms’ users.

Interestingly, this sort of problem is at the heart of my job. The company I work for makes enterprise ecommerce systems for grocery chains. Why don't all grocery chains just use Instacart, Peapod, etc.? Well, who ends up owning your customers then? That's right: the third party platform you can't control.

If you don't own the platform or the platform is not 100%, clearly, unambiguously on your side, then you don't own anything. Your entire customer base, audience, whatever, can be snatched away in an instant.