Sounds like a fantastic idea. Though not a game developer but a software developer. I thought the days of one guy making a fully playable game by himself was well over. I've done something similar with software I wrote some time ago, a lot of people used it and it's all over the web and even though the donate button has been there since day one, I've received no donations. So I think you shouldn't count too much on donations. I think the second Idea of harvesting user interactions and making extra levels or features available for paid users would probably generate you more revenue.
Another option you could consider would be allowing users to sponsor the development of a feature or level. This works great for software but not entirely sure for games.
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