These People arent the salvation army.
But that's the point, entirely - they are expecting the gamers to be just that.
The problem I have with it is that the hype will fail in some time. Eventually there will be a point where players do not have the money any more to just donate. Also, I personally feel that donations are for games that are in general non-profit.
Of course their main goal is to make money with their game.If they give out shares to every donator they won´t make much at all.
That's how life works. If you want money from a bank, you pay interest. If you get investors for your project, they expect a revenue share.
Take this game for example: So they need 60k. Let's say they sell their product for 300k in total. So give 180k back to the investors (everyone gets 200% profit), and the developers earned an additional 120k (additional regarding the monthly wage they are getting already)
It's really economical basics.
To be honest, I'd be really interested in putting money into games that I believe could become a success and get a share of that. THAT could kill EA. Not donation funded games, that hype will die eventually.
Edit: I'm sorry, I'm drifting offtopic, any mod want to split it?