This topic was brought up several times in the past regarding Discovery, especially internally, and the answer was always no. Why? Because this is a free mod. It was founded on that principle and really shouldn't be up for discussion in the first place. Disco isn't intended to make money. It's fully logical when it comes to server/management bills as no one makes a profit off it. It's less logical when it comes to a developer(s) in the current context as it is straight up with the intent of making a profit.
As it's been brought up, I'd like to stress setting up a patreon to "reward" the dev team as a whole will in all likelyhood get Discovery nuked pretty quickly as you are dealing with a Microsoft product. The game might be abandoned, but it is still copyrighted and therefore a Microsoft game. Considering Discovery is not compliant with Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules, I would truly suggest not to do anything that would get Microsoft's attention. Setting up a patreon for the benefit of developers will be considered as financial gains, which is not allowed by the GCUR. It is not worth killing the mod to make a quick buck, because you are not even going to make much of a profit considering the amount of people left here.
As an individual, a patreon is not the right way to go with what you seem to have in mind. As Miaou rightfully pointed out, it is more logical to approach this kind of work with commissions. Commissions are done everywhere (hello Deviantart) when you want to offer your services or buy the services of an individual. It is absolutely possible to commission shiplines, unique ships and whatever else but it comes with the understanding this work is performed as an agreement between two individuals outside of Discovery's scope. The reasoning to use should not be "I'm making this ship for Discovery mod", but instead "I'm making a model for person X". Apply this rule and no one will piss in your shoes as the agreement will solely be between two individuals and the community will have nothing to do with it. The price and what will be delivered will be entirely outside of the community's scope, as it should be.
