I know there are many people who have donated substantially, Life gave his example, i myself have spent around 4,5k on AW before you joined -
us players dont need everything at once. everyone loved Alpha even with its poor graphics - what we need is
1. the bare minimums to have an economy going (able to have all mobs and loot available for killing skilling crafting (because its a cycle))
2. the minimum stuff all working smoothly (dont need a giant world working perfect, just a small piece of land that works perfect)
3. some sort of communication/update ( NO matter how small) every two weeks. Regular. with this stuff, people will play, and will donate. because they will see a future. and so then take as long as you want to work on everything else, as long as we can see that you're making progress
so im asking to take a couple steps back, so that you can move forward. instead of working on the whole world,
fix a small area so that everything works and is available, and then expand out. even if it requires zones like in alpha and not a seemless world. we want the game