I love this game but can someone please help me understand why the update takes so long? I realize that it's a lot of content each time but 90% of the content is the same five already created stills of the girls standing there looking surprised then upset then happy in every conversation. If almost every conversation with the characters is already rendered for the most part and they just reuse the same renders over and over, why does it take so long?
Because the dev makes every update so that it has a complete sub-arc. There's the whole arc, which will span the entire game, and then there are shorter ones.
You are familiar with the subject, as most TV-series do this. Each episode has a complete sub-arc. Througout a season bits and pieces from the different episodes tie in to develop the entire story progression.
But, then there's different kinds of TV-series, and thus different demands on how much time you need to tell the piece of the story you need to tell. Simple sitcoms make do with 20 minutes or whatever it is, whereas something like "The Sopranos" or "Band of Brothers" which have a much more developed story, more plotlines, more developed characters, require an hour or so to make someting that holds together as a separate episode.
And Naughty has made it clear that he doesn't want to release an episode that doesn't lead anywhere on its own, nor simplify the story so that it fits in the sitcom slot.