"Everyone" was not begging for it to be continued by someone other than Xeno. There's a very vocal minority that were always pushing for it. Honestly without Xeno's animations it should just die a peaceful death. That's where this game truly stands out.
No doubt.
I'll credit the Dev for some patience as well in some aspects of storytelling. Tempo. The vibe in general has been somewhat organic and holistic. However, several other areas were relatively static, shallow, and certainly lacking in... I dunno, zest. The dialogue is specifically empty and often as flat as a pancake.
There are things to improve upon. But the animations have continually been superlative and even improved upon consistently. It'll be a tall order to match that effort...