The problem is that the signal from the antenna is not always in phase at the summing point. If you connect two antennas together then sometimes the signals from the two antennas add and sometimes the signals are 180degrees out of phase with similar strength and cancel out nearly completely.
When you connect two omnidirectional antennas together you usually create one directional antenna with 10-20dB nulls in the radiation pattern.
With patch antennas, if all the antennas are aimed at a distant transmitter, they are not getting different signals due to reflections from objects, the antennas are close together so that different arrival times from the source dosn't make a big phase shift and the coax or transmission lines to the combiner are exactly the same length then it may be an improvement most of the time.
If you have patch antennas pointing in different directions then sometimes the signals will add and sometimes the signals will subtract.