Kottke Goes for Broke

Veteran blogger Jason Kottke goes for broke:

I’m asking the regular readers of kottke.org (that’s you!) to become micropatrons of kottke.org by contributing a moderate sum of money to help enable me to edit/write/design/code the site for one year on a full-time basis. If you find kottke.org valuable in any way, please consider giving whatever you feel is appropriate.

Yikes. While trying to afford living in Brooklyn, NY?
Snarks from MeFi:

The only person to market a successful diary was Anne Frank. And we all know what happened to her.

And an overwhelming: $30 is a micropayment?

We’re not sure what kottke is selling us. His personality? His filter on the interesting out there in the world? Now we’re contemplating being asked to pay for the chance to read one chap’s musings?

Maybe I’m too close-minded. I don’t see Kottke’s site as exceptionally useful. Entertaining, yes. But I don’t see him as an essential filter for my daily news intake. Metafilter, yes. DailyKos, yes.
What’s the product? The point of view?
Is this the beginning of ‘filter as celebrity’? Or will Jason’s creativity be freed to create more novel applications of web publishing?