i dont want to get into financials because situations are different for everyone. so long as you're not just surviving but living, you do what you do.
as for paying for games:
im more then happy to support developers who have earned trust capital with me and ill buy their games, even at full price. this is broken into two halves however: i have an extensive list of iffy indie games and the moment i can get them at any kind of discount ill buy them immediately. aaa titles, however, i look at the dev and their past catalog: cd projekt red only have the witcher series in their gaming portfolio but i enjoyed all 3 games and ive fought myself against buying thronebreaker because im not too into card based video games.
with the quality of their games, i extend cd projekt red a fair amount of trust capital and i have few hard expectations for cyberpunk other then custom genitals, the fact that its some sort of rpg with open world things to do, and keanu reeves. i want to be surprised, which is a rather rare thing in this age of gaming with streamers leaking day 1 gameplay footage, tvtropes (im not addicted, ur addicted), and extensive fan research.
i want to have that weird bittersweet joy i used to have as a kid of getting a new game, sight unseen, and realizing a few days into it that it was crap all along or that i made a correct purchase.