Did I say dialogue? No, proofreading all the code works and won't be, as you put it, a buggy mess.
Proofreading the code, huh. Seriously, if the code is so bad that it takes many months to proofread it, it should be deleted and they should start over with more straightforward and simpler code that is within their technical abilities. ES is not a new game. They have had years to get the code in a mature working state and they haven't done it. Of the 100s of games here, ES is the only game I have played where saves no longer work between versions. And no other game here spends months "merging" between versions, and releases multiple content-free updates. Why bother. Don't release anything until there is something new for the fans to play.
I know the dev loves to brag about his massive amount of code, but RenPy does most of the work for you. All you need is dialog and choices, and some flags. What is he coding that is so complicated? The only non-standard item in the interface that actually functions is the phone, and we saw what happened with that.
Frankly, from the communication from the dev I can't tell if he and his team truly doesn't know what they are doing and are just winging it month to month, or they are actually doing almost nothing and selling us all a bill of goods to keep the Patreon cash coming. Endless claims of "merging", and many updates, including the planned next one, with no new content only annoy your fan base. I code for a living, and merging days of updates into one version, or weeks of updates into a month should not take more than a few days of work. All the assets, dialog, and choices are already done. Just cut and paste into 1 file or a sequence of files, rename some assets, a few days of testing to make sure it all still works, and you are done. While you are at it, run a batch recompression of the assets so the update is reasonable size. There are free tools available that can do all this in the background overnight.
My personal opinion? Since the devs can't use rendering time as an explanation for the long delays like most other devs, they only thing they can fall back on is to claim to be proofreading or fixing the code. We all know that creating scenes is very quick using illusion assets, so they can't claim that creating content is what is taking the time.
It is their game, and they can do what they want. They should just be honest about what they are doing. There are several games I like a lot where the dev says honestly, "I am one person, I have a 8 to 5 job, I have family responsibilities, and I am doing this in my free time, so I can only spend several hours a week on development.", and that is fine. People can choose to support them or not. Personally I support several devs like this, because I know they can use the money, fan support helps give them motivation to continue, and I like what they are doing and their involvement in the community.
There is a lot of good content in ES, at least so far, and like I said, it is a fun game to play. Maybe the dev team will decide that they have bitten off more they can chew and simplify the game so we don't have to hear endless progress updates from the dev over years about how they are "working on the code". Or they can just be straight with us and say we have decided to release one update every 6 months, but with actual content.
But to have update after update where they are just "merging" the game, (which still has non-functioning saves after 2.5 years of development), first from days to weeks, and now from weeks to months, looks like a huge waste of time with no payoff for the fans.
I hope that Bluecat is reading this and rethinks his plan for the game. Simplifying it into a straight VN, and just releasing content on whatever schedule works for him and his team, would do a lot to make ES a better game, and also require less work for the dev team, and less frustration for the fans as well. Also, stop releasing separate individual updates you will merge later. Just add on updates to the game with each release like everyone else. If it gets too big, make it part 1 and part 2, and leave it separated. Who ever heard of releasing separate updates month after month with the intent to merge them later? That is horrible development practice.
(PS. One more month of radio silence, and ES will be marked abandoned here.)