The first thing bluecat does is scapegoat latecomer, and I expected nothing less.
Is latecomer confirmed off the project now then?
Also on that video.. I expect if he does make it (he probably won't) it will just make his public image even worse honestly. If he tries to show how much of a "slog" it is then he may open himself up for bad practices that encapsulates that and might make it look even worse lol.
The fact of the matter is this:
It doesn't take 2+ years to merge month 1, It doesn't even take multiple months on a majority done scale.
Fixing existing systems for month 1 (phone, or calendar or whatever) shouldn't take many months.
He already plans to have a different game style post month 1 that's more open world choose where you go.
Based on the above, month 1 does not need a new save system and instead should just import the save into the post-month 1 system since I bet it's already planned to somewhat function this way anyway, post month-1 content will not be included in an updated month-1 game.
He created a poorly thought out plan for month 1 merge and is still executing that flawed plan.