Yeah, the economics of the whole thing was (and would have been) weird.
I recall the campaign (didn't donate) and wondered if anyone would do an accounting on it. At barest minimum, that had to happen. With Kickstarter and the like now, there are some safeguards built in, but there weren't then.
Plus CBS, etc. would never have accepted that. It was essentially charity from fans. To have taken it would have caused shareholder panic. The whole thing was economics and not creativity-based.
It does trouble me that the show was cancelled at 98 episodes, though. My understanding is that 100 is a kind of magic number for syndication. I realize the show was expensive to produce, but they were only 2 away - a pair of bottle shows could have pushed them to 100 and (presumably) greater syndication profits.
That's what I was always unclear on, that the economics were all over the place. They'd claim the show was too expensive to produce, but then they couldn't take fan $$. They'd cry poor mouth and then not do bottle shows or not do enough of them, or create a new species (Xindi - don't get me wrong, I love the Xindi) with expensive sets, costumes, and makeup, yet deny the canon era-appropriate war with the Romulans (an invisible enemy has got to be cheaper to show). There were likely places where footage could have been reused, etc.
Consider how TOS worked things out in their third season. This show was intended as a prequel to TOS, so why not use some of the money-saving techniques of that series?