I think overall, game progress is moving slowly, for the amount of time it's been in development. I've only just picked it up again after a couple of years, the characters have barely progressed their events. The game looks much better though. I think this is probably why a Frank update might seem like a waste of time, as it's all very slow, and we're itching for something more.
I get your point regarding the token effort of, as it also comes across to me as an after-thought, and most the characters seem to be fairly universal in their sexuality, moulding to the players desires, which kinda makes sense from a gameplay perspective, as it's a developmentally cheap way to maximise the sex.
Unfortunately, I've seen far too many of these games with high Patreon numbers, and loads of backing, end up getting finished prematurely. Insexity, Big Brother, are a couple that come to mind. House Party has been in dev for years, has over 1000 patreons, which even at the base value, is quite a bit of money. That's before Steam and other platform sales.
It comes across now like they're about to mark it done, even though most the character stories are underdeveloped, and don't feel finished. We will probably get some minor updates, before HP2 is announced.