The Interlude was timed appropriately (at the centre of the story, typically where Interludes traditionally fall), it also filled in the gaps of what had been happening with Zoey since her breakup with the mc, and placing more weight on her character than would have been if she just showed up. It also gave DPC a bit of a break, working on something a little different, which may have been cathartic after having spent almost three years flat out on the game already.
That said, players on this forum worked themselves into a rabid frenzy of hate for Zoey because:
- No one wanted a new LI this late into the story (except they wanted Bianca the second they saw her drooling for the mc at the concert, and they wanted Yoga Girl, also knows as Carol-Lyn from this day forth, from only a handful of renders...)
 
- The mc had literally just committed himself to a girl at the end of the last episode (unless you chose the "Others" path, which we all did, so this point is a little moot) and they were afraid she was gonna throw a spanner into the works.
 
- She has blue hair and people have issues with that, possible an extension of the smurf from AL.
 
- People already hated her for leaving the mc in the first place because said people have abandonment issues due to their mommies not holding them enough when they were little.
 
- People didn't want 1 second spent away from developing the main story, and this was definitely quite a lot of time away from developing the main story.
 
But actually, the Interlude wasn't that bad.  Compared to other games here (like 98%), it has a combination of good graphics, being told well, having a unique interface, having good music, and superb minigames (ok, I lied about that last one...)  It's just people didn't want it in the first place, so they were significantly bias against it.
Also, even though the time between Episode 8 being released and the Interlude being released was roughly 15 weeks, that time also included:
- Bug fixes for episode 8.
 
- Walkthrough for episode 8.
 
- Christmas.
 
- New Year
 
- Season 2 release on Steam
 
- Both seasons release on GOG
 
- Another Q&A.
 
- DPC getting COVID
 
- Development/testing of the pre-requisite import logic between seasons.
 
The actual core Interlude work was only about a month and a half.
And all that said and done, when Zoey did show up in episode 9, people actually liked her (I mean the players, yeah the DIKs liked her too). She was chill, low key, and didn't start causing problems at all.  The mc doesn't even know where he stands with her just yet.  It's pretty cool.
Although, this animation probably delayed episode 10 by a month!