It is still probably one of the better ways to manage your passwords short of using a password manager. I don’t know any hackas but it feels like a lot of effort, finding patterns in a list of passwords. When you have found a pattern, you must also figure out what the pattern is.

On the other hand, it could be a viable way given that there are some huge leaks with a lot of data. Perhaps someone is selling datasets of hacked patterns, it could be another way to find someones paypal password.