i hear you and I understand the sentiment, but ... let me try to explain why I don't think hat is the best of ideas.
It has, as you so correctly point out: "Been a while since the last release." If I were to release 0.8 with none of the improvements and changes made you would all play it. That doesn't sound too bad or too odd ... right?
However ... if I then went back and worked all of the animations, gallery this and that and the "name-the-saves-thing" into the project, you would be forced to do a full new playthrough come 0.9. Why?
Adding the animations alone, means that I will have to do some rewriting of those scenes, setting up new variables for galleries and stuff, and I have found that doing such things fucks up the save games. That is something that I would rather not mess with right after you have played through a new version of the project (that would be 0.8). It tends to aggravate most players.
I understand that you are itching for the continuation of SotF, and so am I, but all good things comes to those who wait
Cheers - Kaffekop