It's not what I think. It's what I've seen. In the time since V 0.41 was released, Stoper has posted work on his Patreon which was completed for at least two other projects, possibly three.
I was pleased to see Stoper announce that he's going to put off working on Paola, but that doesn't change the fact that he's been working on other things, besides JOHN, in the time since the last update. And of course, it's his choice. He can decide what to work on when he pleases. But I stand by my contention that, if he would focus on JOHN, and not spend so much time on unrelated projects, he would progress much more quickly.