Originally posted by Father Goat:

I recently came across the modded Valheim servers of Jiroc The Viking, and it concerns me that you have to be a VIP member of his Patreon to access a modification of Iron Gates video game, Valheim.

You aren't paying to access the modification of Valheim. They only give access to people who are VIP patreon members. It's entirely up to them who they give access to on their privately run server.

If you look at their page they don't have any required mods for the servers (except on the hardcore one). In fact, a quick read of the page says that the idea is to stick to a vanilla experience and they only allow approved client-side QoL mods. As far as I can see every single one of those mods is on Nexus and free.

Edit: Also, many modders who I like the content from in other games have either a patreon or a paypal to donate to them with. Which they entirely deserve. They've done work and we're enjoying it, they should be rewarded.