I think you guys have to keep in mind when development started for LR2, what the main goals where back then and where you are now with it.
The first version of LR2 came out around the very beginning of 2018 and back then up to roughly version 0.9 a lot if not most of the stuff he did was testing his own abilities plus trying some fancy tech stuff he hadnt done before but felt a need to dive into for future development of LR2. Another 10 or so releases then started putting some meat to the backbone in terms of some story content etc.
After that he basically started to leave his original path of the roadmap he had originally described. Quote ' v0.4 and beyond - There are several different major goals I want to tackle once we pass v0.3. The introduction of rival companies, with their own serum inventories and employees to poach, is one of the most interesting to me. I would also like to add an external threat to the company in the form of law enforcement who must be kept unaware, distracted, or bribed. Adding in the main five from the original game and sculpting an overarching story is also on my list of major tasks. '
So any kind of expectation has to be done with this radical change in mind. That roadmap was not part of the next 20 or so releases any more. Instead things started to iterate around certain mechanics which meant things where constantly being rechecked and rebalanced for quite some time. The latest changes should be seen as a return to some form of roadmap - probably not the original one anymore but most probably a atempt to return to a more structured release with a clear endgoal in mind.
I totally get you and i think in the past i have also stated that it is fine for me that he is trying and developing his skills and i have also seen his improvement and i do think that he added a lot since the beginning.
I support him since LR1 and i do think that some Systems can be added and other have to be refined.
But i also think that he could sometimes react on what his patreons wrote. He has proven that he can provide a Mindmap what he wants to do over next updates. And if someone reads the comments on patreon there are people who go really deep into some things how they could function better or where his code is broken.
But i also think that even if you don't want to complete stories you can provide every few updates something that silence the ones that support him and get his back free again. If he would go for an 2 Updates i make what i want than i do something for the fans of the story than i do two updates what i want and than i go for a update that provides to the people that want more clothes and so on.
I give him that this time he reacted quickly with a patch to make it easier to get out of tier 0, but no single word to his patreons even not to them who are not criticize but actually providing help (this means not me).
If he would declare what he wants to do and what it is for than i would not bitch about this, but his post are very seldom near what you get in the new patch.
And sorry i do think that the game has become the last three patches more and more broken. From Textlines that don't add up anymore to very weird behavior to not functioning parts of code. i appreciate that he will work not on a new system over the holidays but smooth out some things that he implemented.
And for those who say they want more gamemechanics ... nothing good come from adding mechanics to mechanics that are not functional only for the sake of adding mechanics.