Whether it's dead or not is still yet to be determined. The biggest factor here is that the dev paused the monthly fee so whether it actually does get abandoned or not, the patrons won't be getting scammed/taken advantage of.
I quite enjoyed this game and like most of you, I too was disappointed by how long the unsolicited remaster is taking (I feel this should have been done after the story was done) and how long the next update will actually take, but I've gone from checking this thread daily to see if there was an update, to almost forgetting about this game entirely for about 2 months. I suggest everyone just forgets about this game for a bit, play/do some other stuff, let the dev do their thing(I like to think this won't get abandoned), and just comeback once it's finally done. Happy Holidays everyone!