I think this attitude of prolonging games is wearing thin on the community now, devs don't get the support anymore because they are insulting their fans by making the same old "mental health" excuse. Why is it every porn game dev suddenly becomes "mentally challenged" and riddled with health issues? It's more of a conspiracy for me. I don't trust them when they use that as an excuse to buy more time. There maybe legit cases but I for one am not sympathetic to it anymore since the same excuse has been recycled in almost the same fashion and during the same peaks in different games. This genre of porn is slowly falling apart thanks to this behavioral trend.
I do think that excuses of the "I was sick" type are often abused for making excuses for longer waiting times and similar. Of course with any individual we will never know, but it may appear often.
However, it is well known that being self-employed without a sufficient revenue stream to save up can put an enormous emotional stress on a person. Having to live off instant ramen for a while is one thing, not knowing whether this will change at any time is a different beast, not knowing whether you can even afford Ramen daily gets worse. People in all kinds of fields will experience it. Open a new bar/restaurant, start as a lawyer or consultant for stuff (do not take an established firm). If you know somebody who did, even if they are now doing well, ask about the first months/years. Also, finding a decent "work/life balance" is way more difficult than for employed people - you need to work, and work hard, to make your money, then again you need to watch your health and not get burned out.
Also creative work is a health risk. Writer's block is a permanent threat. Having to deal with permanent evaluation of your work, including negative one, including unfair one, is a stress factor. The step from superstar to failure is a very small one. Look at the number of famous creative people who find themselves in some kind of rehab because they used drugs/alcohol to calm them down. Yes, certainly it also is the scene (I would never find cocaine in my circles to even start stuff), but it also is the need to get away.
Combine these two things and you have to expect way higher rates of health issues than in the general population. Cherries on top are that working on a PC isn't healthy, that people on here aren't inclined to be the healthiest bunch anyway, and that it is difficult to talk about your job - it is one thing to talk about a traumatic experience at the hospital or an entitled Karen at the burger joint, everybody will get you, but would you tell your average friend about the angle issue on that vagina squirting scene? - and I am pretty certain there are a bunch of devs out here who will indeed struggle with health.
Again, there will also be quite a few who need an excuse for being tardy, just as there are a surprising amount of people who need saves because their hard disk crashed, but in general the risk is there.
