I love that you're chatting about creator support tools like patreon.

LIGHT ACCOUNTS
While the big issue you're talking about is an issue creating another companion account for 3 steem isn't a huge barrier if you're doing a paid system like patreon. Specially with the upcoming implementation of resource pools to allow an app handle the resource needs of the weekly or monthly transactions.

Automated payments are a big deal for patron however you can have a patreon type system even with a manual contribution system. Or a system where you trust someone to deliver payments and you hold money in a soft account that the payer still has access to at any time. That level of trust for just a few cents to a few dollars is not a deal breaker every day majority of the planet trusts thousands of third parties to keep their money under the stewardship of another organization (banks) So putting in $5-20 into an account you still have access to but another company has access to and stakes their reputation on in order to let them do a service for you is not gonna be a deal breaker for a patreon on steem.

If we want to solve this toward a completely trustless that's awesome... but this is not what's holding up a patreon system on steem.

BIGGER ISSUE
Seeing that PATREON is essentially a Pay Wall content hosting system perhaps the more difficult item that may be a bit more of a barrier is low level ENCRYPTING content. Because that lies at the heart of most Pay Wall/subscription systems

Aka you can read this content IF you have done X
Example IF you have paid a subscription... or IF you follow me or IF i follow you or IF you voted on it... Or IF there's a transaction in my wallet that says you paid to see this.

A system that doesn't have a PAY WALL is more of just a Donation system.