Even if a patron funds your truth-seeking and truth-speaking, you should still charge for it. Although the patron applies responsibility in that you must continually impress the patron, it's not sufficient. Giving stuff away for free is charity, ""altruism,"" or more properly godless communism. It speaks poorly of the character and motives of the individual engaged in the seedy practice.
Charge market rate. The patron shouldn't have to bear the entire burden. It's simply that you'll find the market rate is below e.g. minimum wage. It's real low. Go be a plumber or a bouncer instead, if you can't get a patron.
If you don't charge money, then make a mystery cult. Charge by initiation. Occlude the knowledge; make it arcane. In general when a commoner starts to know something they manage to figure out just enough to get themselves into trouble, then stop. More importantly, they get others into trouble. Free knowledge is free power is free vandalism. It's a crime and should catch a felony rap. (I employ anti-rhetoric to keep commoners off my blog.) Even if the market regularly demanded truth it probably wouldn't be a good thing, as average IQ is too low to use it responsibly.
I often say Hermes Trismegistus wrote metaphorically, because no matter how dangerous a chemistry lab is, at worst you taint your body. Alchemy is far more dangerous than a few chemical burns, a few fumes, or a massive explosion.
Or perhaps, precisely because truth is often hazardous, toxic material, requiring special handling to avoid injury, giving it away isn't altruism. It's persecution, and therefore admirable on Darwinian grounds.
Perhaps Trismegistus should have written perfectly literally because engaging in Alchemy irresponsibly will maim you profoundly, and the more maimed the irresponsible are, the better it is for everyone else.
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