Why doesn't it sit right? Providing a higher level of service reward for those who support provides an incentive, yet those who do not support are no worse off than they already were.
What surprises me is the need for fast downloads. Books are small. 20 fast small downloads doesn't seem much of a reward.
That the first thing it says on every download page is a push to sign up for a monthly subscription. Then it continues with a push to refer friends to do the same.
From some testing there seems to be a built in delay, and then as some scanned books can easily be 20-100MB a download time of 5-10mins isn't uncommon. (I not complaining about this)
Anything else of value with exclusivity like an additional catalog or early-access would go against their stated goal.
So, I guess this is similar to buying official physical merchandise like t-shirt or mug at a higher than market price which they cannot ship (legally) due to the nature of their service. Both parties know that the benefit they get doesn't match the costs and it is about showing support.
Yes, I wouldn't suggest or support anything like that.
One way this feels different to me is that while somewhere able to sell merchandise may have a range of items including some very expensive it generally wouldn't be suggesting I buy something every month and then offer an increasing % discount for paying 3/6/12/24 months up front.
There's an enormous difference between spreading stolen information for free or selling stolen information for profit. If you don't understand this, you have to investigate your moral compass a bit. There's a reason why purchasing stolen goods is a crime in most of the world.
Yeah, while governments indeed do not care too much about "piracy", this raises the threat that they will do something to stop it, and the punishment will be harsher.
See also : the recent shutdown by Nintendo of a Switch emulator, where they exploited the fact that it got crowdfunded (with specific rewards for bigger backers ?).
What surprises me is the need for fast downloads. Books are small. 20 fast small downloads doesn't seem much of a reward.