Doesn't the game development process kinda go like this;
Idea -> content (making images, writing script) -> code (integration of content into one coalesced product that has a plot of some sort) -> test code (error and runtime environment stability proofing making it functional) -> repacking (garbage collection) -> distribution, reintegration -> patching, dlc's implantation, error correction -> test code (error and runtime environment stability proofing) -> distribution, reintegration
Somewhere along the way, I think ZTF got lost by the free money he was earning just sitting on his caboose. Until that dried up.
Now he needs to make and extorted effort to regain his base back (aka = $)... huzzah, magically we have an update as soon as the sub count went down.
Is there a correlation, idk.