One of the major reasons I'm here is because of Dynasty's hosting policies. Basically that it's a private host which will never place ads or take donations, and is in general supportive of scanlators, the original artists, and licensed releases. Actions like Dynasty taking down Girl Friends when it got licensed are things I respect. Because it's clear that Dynasty does not host these releases for self-profit or to disrespect anybody. Rather, it is providing a service for fans which encourages good fandom.
Obviously, in terms of directly supporting authors, the best method is purchasing the original material. For people who cannot read Japanese however, purchases like these basically constitute outright donations. As far as reading things like scanlations or licensed translations go, if these works weren't translated, the original authors wouldn't be seeing a cent from Western fans in the first place. That's why I think it's fine that fans don't go and make a RAW purchase of every scanlation they read. For authors that readers really are passionate about, though, I do hope they go and make those purchases.
Supporting licensed English translations is, I think, a whole different issue. Rail against "middlemen" as you like, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong about paying for legal, professional translations for manga. The fact is that readers in the western world speak a different language. If we want to read manga, it has to get translated somehow. There are advantages that legal solutions can sometimes provide which fan scanlations won't: guarantees of a certain level of translation quality, release consistency, access to different fan demographics. I think it's good/healthy that manga and anime possess both fan and professional translation scenes, so when I pay for licensed English releases, yes, it's to support the English licensing industry. Think about the fact that a complete translation of Voiceful would not exist/have been completed as promptly without a licensed translation team. Is it really so bad that manga licensing "middlemen" exist?
Ultimately, as far as supporting your manga hobby goes -- whether your favourite artists, or licensed professional translations -- it's true that you basically vote with your wallet. My reason for respecting Dynasty is that it respects/encourages those decisions. This goes for both the original artists and licensed releases. It is a fairly big step to expect inexperienced English fans used to simply pirating their manga to start making expensive import purchases of Japanese tankoubons. Licensed releases represent a nice intermediary step to becoming good fans who make concrete actions to support their passions.