Yes, because many believe art to be a higher calling than some stupid new gadget or cloud service.<p>While I don&#x27;t really want patrons or VCs ruling the scene, and would much rather let the artists reign, artists generally don&#x27;t have jobs (VCs took &#x27;em) and so they don&#x27;t have much money, so they can only do so much to support themselves. Enter the patron.