He knew exactly what he was doing, that's why he made a video
Right. He knew this would move the needle, and he was holding it in his back pocket until it became absolutely necessary. He’s privy to a lot more info than your average JWN poster, and as a YT channel owner and Patreon creator, he saw all the trend lines and analytics. And they were horrible. His existing pool of support, meaning the people who were around for the livestream was dwindling to a percentage and ever so slightly on the decline. People were moving on.
What we had here was LE scraping the bottom of his barrel for a new crop of Cedarites. So he came up with a good sized vial of gold dust with these new recruits. Does it surprise me? No, though I didn’t think he would be as blatant as he was in the video.
Think of what was said in the video. It was very manipulative and he used a tonne of empty threats. He was never scaling back the channel the way he claimed he was, but his viewer base was meant to think just that. They were manipulated into accepting his “stroogles” as their own. He needed to get to 620.
So they obliged him. But there’s a reason he hadn’t played that card until now, 14 months later. He can’t go back. He is nailed to the cross of exJW content. Who do you think saved him, atheists? If you are feeling particularly masochistic go read those comments. Many were from believing Christians. (They must REALLY be new to Lloyd’s content). But these are the people who are paying for exJW shit. And that is what he is obligated to deliver. He can do his Mormon or religion videos, but he knows they won’t get as many views and might even alienate a few of his viewers. Jabba the Hutt is chained to the throne of Jehovah God. (Kind of like how Princess Leia was to Jabba on Return of the Jedi, but she was way more attractive than Lloyd Evans, even well into Carrie Fisher’s old age).
Another reason he held that card in his back pocket was that it will only work once. Not only is he chained to Jehovah, he now has an irreparable reputation as being very conscious about money. When these new Cedarites come across hard times (and many of them were, you wouldn’t believe how many said they could barely afford the $1 pledge), they see how casual Lloyd is to spending their money and it’s an easy cut. The emotion dies down and they know the channel is in no danger. If you want people to run, pull the fire alarm. Keep pulling the fire alarm and people aren’t running anymore.
So he’ll peak sometime soon, likely this weekend or into next week. He promised a lot of good content including documentaries, so that’s a little extra work for our favourite grease stain. Cheers!