You are focusing way too much on the animations...
The reason why everyone is talking about these animations is just the fact that they take the MOST time to render and it seems that they delay the release... DPC can do about 8 animations a week with his PC slaves. But to say those animations are the reason why an update takes so long is to easy. To prepare those animations doesnt take that much time. The render-time only is time consuming... but its nothing DPC has to "do"... he pretty much throws them in the queue and works on other stuff. But of course the "slaves" are occupied with animations renders than, but he need this time to deal with coding, writing, and preparing static renders... if he would do the game without animations, i would say the epsiode would maybe take 1-2 months less time to develop but not more... while the slaves are occupied with animation rendering, DPC has to deal with other things anyway. Its just the fact that the overall content is big and he is making everything on his owen why it takes so long. But those things just take its time... only way to be a lot faster, would to cut out content... with better hardware the rendering progress would be faster, but DPC has still to do the coding, polishing, writing and so on... there is nothing that can speed up this... well, except hire personal.
Of course those animations dont add much to the content itself. Mostly they are for the lewd scenes... dont know anymore what DPC told us in a DEV report, but all those animations together maybe have a play time about 45 minutes total... as a "sexmovie" that is ^^
No the actual big mass of the content are the static renders... an those will be close to 5000. Which is a huge number and in fact the biggest episode so far. So you can be sure, contentwise it will be the biggest, DPC said this himself too in one of his reports.
If you will enjoy it is on another page though of course...
Regarding the progress you want to see. Well, i cant imagine that those checkboxes you posted will NOT be checked mostly... of course he has to do something with Zoey, and he will... maybe not THAT much, she is just introduced, or better said, had her comeback... I would think she will make an impact late in the episode to stir things up that will come in the future.
The Burke scene has to be dealt with too... to me it would be much appreciated if we can solve the Maya tuition at least for a while... its getting a little annoying now. In my opinion the whole tuition deal holds any progression with Maya and Josy back for good. And it feels kinda pointless that Maya studies, made the midterms and such, if the whole thing blows up anyways... so yeah DPC should deal with it now (no matter how, i could easy picture a scenario where maya has to leave college too, but still be a big part like before... she lives nearby) i dont say he must deal with it for good... but it should not be a big issue anymore for at least the next two episodes... so he can focus on other things more and we can get progress in the relationship with J&M and maybe open up a solo route for them too. This solo route HAS to come eventually and to be satisfying it should start about now, or maybe with episode 2 in season 3... otherwise it would feel a little bit too late for that.
Halloween will be big... there will be the planning for the party, as far as i know including a minigame.
Most LI will take part in it. Maybe Jill will not take part in the party... she is not a party girl and isnt a "fangirl" of the DIKs... maybe she will take part in the party if she is with the MC, but it wouldnt surprise me much if she wont be there... Same goes for Bella, i cant really picture her in a wild Halloween party in the DIK mansion... Every other LI and sidegirl (well the pink roses and college-girls that is... Nora and Jade will not be there i think) will be there... and will get some "quality time" with the MC too. But it will be interesting how the whole party will play out considering the Burke-Scene. And the Halloween party is the reason why i think that the Burke-scene will be somewhat smooth. Cant imagine the Burke-scene will blow up there and than everybody is happy at a Halloween-party later. So i dont think there will be some real shit going on at the burkes... maybe AFTER the party shit will hit the fan.
Regarding "real" progress with any of the LIs... well yeah, for J&M there has to be more... but for the others? Since episode 8 we are in a REAL relationship now (or with noone) that pretty much settles it for now... how much more progress do you want there? Put a ring on her finger? I think maybe the feelings will develop a little more, and of course 1-2 lewd scenes and talks... but the major impact in those relationship was epsiode 8 for now... the ship is sailed for most girls for now... a little "honeymoon-phase" can follow up... not that much more for most relationships, i wouldnt expect very much more progress in the somewhat "settled" love-paths. Yeah J&M need some real progress, and the Bella/Jill situation has to be dealt with too... but thats about it for the LIs. We have to wait how Zoey will be placed in all this... i think she will appear late in the episode and shake some things up for the future episode. But not imediately.
About classes... *shrug* i dont know, and i dont really care too... yeah its a game in college life, but lets face it, the actual classes are just short "breaks" from the drama. Not the focus of the game.
The hospital scene... we saw a preview, nothing more... who knows what this means... maybe its jsut something short, maybe somebody at the halloween party just went overboard with alc and needed some care? DPC loves to play with our minds and expectations. The Hospital scene could mean shit. Something like... Derek put a little to many vodka tampons up his butt.
There are some serious and huge questions in the air that need answers, but i think those answers dont have to come in this episode... like the pregnancy test, Bellas secret and more... i think DPC will play a little more with those pending issues, maybe spread some hints here and there. Those things are to big to be "solved" or "concluded" just now.