Like you mentioned, it was shown at e3, the largest platform for upcoming games in the world. The fans made that happen. If their voice was powerful enough to make Sony give up 5 minutes for their stage time, their dollars are likely are made the kickstarter the success it was.
Also, new fans do necessarily equal financial backing. Yes, a lot of fans more than likely donated 10-30 dollars. Most people don't have the luxury to donate anymore, but the people who simply intrigued likely donated around the same amount too on average. How you see the non fans donating more than the fans and making a significant chunk of the backing is beyond me. I dont consider it closed minded. I consider it realistic and some of the fanbase seems to have had unrealistic expectations for this game, including sales
The fans made the Kickstarter happen. I think that's obvious. And nowhere did I claim that non fans had donated more than fans, now you are just putting words into my mouth.
But I think it's delusional to assume that people who didn't know about the series up until E3 didn't put any money in either, or very little. When, again, this was shown at "the largest platform" on Earth for games, with millions watching. Many people would have seen the franchise for the first time. Many would have been intrigued. Many would have helped out for various reasons. And many wouldn't - including fans. This could have been because of financial difficulties etc. $7 million is a shit ton of money. It wouldn't have just come from the existing fans' pockets, I'm sorry. If the Kickstarter was launched out of nowhere on, say, the YSNet website and not at E3, we wouldn't have seen anywhere near that $7 million. That's
why E3 was chosen.
Many of Shenmue's existing fans were from the Dreamcast days. That's a long time ago and some would have either given up, feeling the push for Shenmue 3 was a waste of time, or ya know, real life kinda happened. Heck, some fans didn't even know Shenmue 3 was a thing until it was nearly released.
It's okay for the series to have new fans - and to donate, especially from an E3 reveal.
I'm not here trying to belittle the achievements of the fans. Far from it and I'm sorry to anyone if it comes across that way.
All I'm trying to say is, yes, fans made the Kickstarter happen. Many more made Shenmue 3 a reality. And that's good. Because we were always striving to get new fans interested in the series, like with the releases of Shenmue HD.