The only thing sustaining it the gravy train, at least thats the only rational thing that makes sense to me. But I admit, I read Crow's comments and he often sounds like someone who completely believes his own lies. Maybe he really does believe hes making progress. That's even more depressing.
Like someone said above, most people were fine with point and click. Its a hentai game and he has (had?) skill with character design; lean into that with a simple game structure, dont try do... whatever the hell he is doing. I dont see why he dont just go to that again, hell if it was even just "interim" while he works on his Frankenstein's monster it would be the biggest actual product hes produced in over a decade. I find him absolutely fascinating, but not in a respectful way. More like in a lolcow "what on earth is happening here" way at this point because of how bizarre it all is