I may be wrong, but the last time Phil was explicitly begging for hundreds of dollars in tips, and money to cover the cost of games in particular, it was right before the bankruptcy started.
Not only is this probably a strong indicator that his addiction got the better of him last month and he spent more than he could handle, but I think it points to the dangerous entitlement that has been enabled and which Phil has allowed to spiral.
As I mentioned before, the bankruptcy and his financial woes were based on business expenses of $5k monthly, which included the purchasing of games.
Since the PS5 came around, Phil has become autistically fixated on spending nothing on the business. Think about it. Aside from vests and hats, Phil has tried to buy nothing.
He begged for stream improvements he can afford (he has met the criteria he established for affording them and is now lying), including a chair, laptop, and XBox.
He has filled his schedule with less-than-full-price remasters of games he has already played, or ones that he previously skipped and now feigns interest in (MonkeyBall).
He has leaned into any games that do not have a full next-gen price tag.
He became obsessed with gamepass and openly expressed interest in the idea that he could pay one fee to then not have to pay for games.
He recently admitted that he was using credit a fan gave him to make Amazon purchases (for the hats and his headphones), and for games. This strongly indicates that a whale approached him about supporting like this and an arrangement was made for game credits specifically. He is now asking again for credits and tips.
His spending on the business has probably dropped under $700 each month for the last 4 months. And that's me high balling it.
Phil resents that, after the bankruptcy, he should have to spend a fucking cent on his business. Everything should be provided for him to continue.
He seems aware that this mentality is problematic, which is why he is asking for credits - not only does he not want it to eat into the spending money (tips), but Phil knows he cannot convince himself to spend the tip money on the business now, so he needs to lock himself to paying for games with digital credits.
This recent line about Metroid Dread and Guardians and not being able to afford them, and still only maybe playing them after saying he got credits to play them... it all suggests that his spending is so out of control that he can't even force himself to loosely run his business anymore. The credits are him sneakily trying to use his fans to regulate his spending a little.