Does your brain cells stopped working or they never did from the beginning. Do you even know what 'failing us' mean?
Since you can't understand in short words I'll explain to you in this lengthy post.
Rainces original game was based on sandbox. Which is not a bad new for a new developer to take over but if the code got messy with every new update it will be a nightmare for a new developer. That's why it makes sense to lot of developer to just start over with their own codes. And here's the problem with starting over from the beginning. That's why I said "people are running out of time". It doesn't mean people are literally running out of time. It means people are running out of patience.
Now why I suggested dev not to make a complex sandbox. Dev wants to remake the game he loves so let's just say he has the amount of 100% motivation to do it. So he made the game with mechanics like sleeping, sneaking, peaking etc. in the first release. After some time he decided or people suggested they need more mechanics. So he added; in order to be able to peek you need sneaking skills. Motivation is going down. After some time again someone wants something new. So he added message mechanics. Again someone whats more mechanics. So he added hacking mechanics. And again and again and again until his favorite game becomes a burden. That's why 80% of abandoned game is sandbox. There is no way for a single person to live up to the expectation from sandbox.
It is people like you who encourage dev to make the game as they want which eventually make dev miserable.
Lastly, I got a task for you. Ask as many people as you like that what they care more about? Games story progression or mechanics? (Somehow I know that you know the answer to that question already)