You are being a bit too pessimistic here, something could have happened IRL that has prevented him from continuing development, but that does not necessarily mean he has abandoned it forever.
His last Patreon log was in September, and he even was online up until last month.
i mean, the last few updates do seam to take longer and longer, and the complete radio silance ain't great.
most people understand that there are always the posibilityes of some IRL stuff going down, but at the same time ... most people also understand that posting a msg takes about 20 - 40 seconds.... like..... can we please stop pretending that a 40 second typed msg is some mythical herculean effort ?
everyone is fine with allowing more time when IRL shit goes down, but as far as i am concerned, to many people seam to be fine with makeing up scenarios of justifications of why something is happening...
i also had a relative die 2 weeks ago, it sucked... left a text msg to everyone knowing that i would be hard to reach for the next 3 days till after the funeral, after witch went back on the grind.
going out of contact for 1/4 th of a year kuz " ma' dog step't on a bee " is a little obscene to be honest