Let me elucidate:

A Sailfish patch is exactly what it sounds like: a patch. Most Sailfish apps are written in QML, a descriptive language not dissimilar to C++. In other words, they are provided in a text form. A patch lists a set of changes: replace these lines in this file with this text, that set in that file with another text, etc.

What juiceme is proposing is to inspect what the patch does and apply the same changes manually. Note it may not be suitable for everyone. You need to know what you are doing. Juiceme is talking from a geek's perspective. Hence the smileys at the end of his posts.