I agree. The things he says regarding subs are so oddly fascinating. For example:
"Alright guys, we gotta seriously start do something about the subs. The subs are seriously dipping like crazy. We gotta do something. We are way far away from our goal."
Who is this directed toward? If I'm checking out his stream for the first time, that quote is just going to baffle me. I don't even know if I like this stream yet and he's trying to stress me about subscribing? And if I'm a current fan, then I'm probably already a subscriber. What does he expect me to do to get him more subs? He's the one producing the service, not me.
Maybe he expects his current subscribers to continually gift subs month after month. It does nothing towards his goal of "growth" because the gift subs are artificial growth: one-time hits being given to chat trolls and nightbot by exasperated fans. Those recipients are not going to legitimately subscribe after their gift subs expire.
And I think his sub earnings are split 50/50 with Twitch, whereas I'm pretty sure his Patreon split is much more in his favor. He's asking his fans to do more work so he can receive less money. That is so mindbogglingly stupid it bears repeating:
He's asking his fans to do more work so he can receive less money.