Rumboy; if you think arguing over something is pointless, why did you just do it?
I find arguing over something is the best way to get information. Because you see, almost no one really uses the dictionary definition of words these days. For example, the word awesome means different things to different people; some consider a one-off, unique event to be awesome. Others use the word to mean the equivalent to "its cool". Trying to find out what people define for themselves what a word means is often difficult without arguing over stuff. Thus I find arguing to be a very efficient way of understanding the other person and their personal definitions over words.
I define a passion project as one where no one is paying you to do the work, and you working at a pace you want to, to get it done. Your incentive is to complete the project, not for monetary gain but for the sheer ability to appreciate the hard work you did to get something done. So, examples of this are:
1. Fixing up an old junker car, to a working state.
2. Building that shed to store your tools.
3. Making a small roguelike that you always wanted to make.
4. Making a short animation, to hone your animating skills.
5. Trying to grow some vegetables this year, in your small plot of land.
6. Repainting your mother's house in a two week period.
When people pay you to do the work, you can work with a passion, but I don't consider it a passion project. If you are building something for a commercial payout, it may start out as a passion project, but the moment you start making money, its no longer about just completing the project for the project's sake, but to complete it to get more money.
Likkez project is hardly a passion project. He gets paid patreon funds to work on and as is actually incentivized to drag out development, as then he will earn more money in the long-run. Much like how the dev of Meridiana / Sorceress' Tale is dragging out development, to milk Patreon.
Its been forever since his last release, and is showing no real progress in getting another playable teaser build out. He's made all sorts of animations but refuses to do a release with them, for reasons.
=====
I've not seen anywhere (or even when I've had personal talks with him, when Tumblr still existed) that he ever intended to release it for free.
Also if a project is on the backburner, its no longer a passion project. Someone who is doing a passion project will find the time to make it happen. If they aren't, they aren't passionate about it anymore. Plenty of people pick up junk cars to fix them up. How many of them, give up and leave a rusting car in their front yard?
