I disagree that the slum story line is not popular.
I was thinkng you was not a Slum fan...
Are you sure?.. I think Slums plot is a requirement... and it is one of the most popular path
the slum storyline is part of the Main Story with always the same renders that can be counted as new renders by simply adding a a different dialog or one single real new render that count as 20 renders already made...
I perfectly know how DM works... he has made the ASSET
The ASSET IS always the first one ready for the new update because it is always almost same as previous release
Now he have to change dialogs and adding the position of the various characters in pre made renders related with background that are alwaus the same...
(he for sure has at least 3 or more very high power computers that make final renders very fast)
...any update does not require a lot of JOB.. it is just the same as many of other devs that work with passion on one single and cheap computer.
The quality of a developers is not related with the money
The job quality of a developers cannot be judge about the fast developing technique... must be judge to the real skill on writing story line and on his enthusiasm and his passion... so is a nonsense compare a developer with other that do not make the same money/
if the dev make a lot money he must works better than others...
DM have found a smart way to di fast update with poor content and the grind of the asset HIDE this to the players
use gallery mod and you will see that in every update the real new renders can be played in 5 minutes!
(there are a lot of them thinking that he have done a titan job but it is not true)
Different story was for the Event List--- (caused by an error that he admited) and splitting the EP2 in 2 different part (because he realize that there was TOO MUCH BUGS coming up from the ASSET that was no more able to load 10GB of useless always the same renders
....the split in 2 parts was a TITAN JOB (he had to work hard and at the same time released very poor update)
I think all paths about Gym, Cleaning House, Bardie and Betty plots are just side stories not related with Monica main plot.
Only the falling and revenge paths (that was postponed because is not possible in the sandbox asset due to the fact that is a linear story line) those 2 paths are in the Main story line and including the slum and the ShinyHole path to have a sense.