Over time I have come to the conclusion that L&P have perfected milking/blue balling of the patrons while still creating a game. I seriously doubt they ever intend to bring it to end, but will start another game some way down the line.
You can be a perfectionist, but L&P do not do perfectionism any longer, they are intentionally lengthening the process. Why I come to this conclusion? Take just a look at some of the top level VNs out there. Ever played gems like e.g. Stein´s Gate, Summer Pockets, Riddle Joker, 9-Nine, Dangaronpa, Little Busters, Dry Drowning or The ditzy Demons (if you lke the funny ones)? They have terrific art made by creators like Key and Sayori to name a few, but even those VNs reuse some pics, scenes and animations with new text when it is not important for the story to keep devlopment time in check. (And this is e.g. even Key doing, in whose VNs the story told is absolute king)
L&P go out of their way to add in useless renders and scenes which could be made with/in front of already made AWAM scenery without taking quality away.
As for branching, look at some pro VNs or even here on site the devs of Our Red String, Good Girl gone bad, Revenge for Jessica, even Culture Shock to name some which have serious or superior branching compared to AWAM. Eva Kiss, the dev of ORS and GGGB, is on pro level when it comes to branching storylines for erotic games. And she has already some sexy stuff in her newest project. Nothing really wild, but fitting to that point in the story. Something we have not in AWAM. And please do not use the slow burn phrase, ORS is slow burn too! And she gets out seriously packing updates about every two months.
L&P say they have the story already finished, it is really laughable that they need this much time per update. We have games onsite with comparable quality renders and/or massive story, which update pretty regular with substantial stuff.
What L&P do is Verschleppung, when you see the updates some other devs put out regularly.