It's so wild because Patreon really wants me, as a creator, to use the app and encourage my patrons to use the app. They want the app to become a social hub by pushing premieres and chat. They know that almost all creators get new patrons from outside links (like twitter/reddit/twitch) and not from browsing Patreon and they're desperate to change that.
And why? Why care about an app at all? Well because shareholders think it's important. They think Patreon could become a replacement for Twitter. They think it's a winning strategy.
So they want the app to succeed. But they DON'T want to spend money to make it a better app NOR do they want to eat the cost of doing business on iOS. Because why spend money when you can just pretend you're the little guy without options (those options being lose out on some money by paying the "apple tax" or just not allow people to subscribe through the app).