honestly the dev not being here is both good and bad.
-good because if they were here any potential attempts to crack the game for cheats or, if someone was so inclined, update this thread with the latest version of the game would stop thus the thread would become another arm of the dev (based on what ive seen). also some devs take the onslaught of anonymous criticism a bit too personally or at least more so than if they werent involved in the thread
-bad because we dont have a direct line to the dev to talk about bugs, issues, and concerns being this "endless" stream of technically bug testers for the game. if they engage with the thread the opinons and suggestions on it will hold more value as well. there's also the possibility that should the dev be fairly consistent with their work we'd get a more concrete update release times.