They aren't starting from scratch, they'll be 5 years deep with experience in Unreal Engine. Dunno why that isn't clicking.
I'm not gonna pretend to know every team member. I just know the core founders are still there (DC and Yagskie), Moneyshot is still in it as their longtime animators. And as far as recruitment goes, MendezSFM was brought into it during Subverse's development (scouted by yours truly).
The intent (in the beginning at least) was to have a usual monthly support site for movies and Kickstarter whenever they want to do another game. I can't speak to if that's changed or not, the game just got done. But at this point its bug fixing and translation work to do while they take in feedback.
If they didn't want to go back to making movies, why bother with the 10th anniversary video and setting up funding goals? They've seen it isn't moving much, so (based on what we've seen in Fansly), they're doing something with Tifa. Maybe its something short just to flex their muscles.
This isn't some mid-development game engine change, its their entire way of working that shifted. SFM was/is a garbage program, and they had to work miracles to get it to look as good as it did. And if they moved to Blender, they'd just be looking like everyone else's works. They've always striven to be 'not your average smut'
In any case, this is just gonna be the same as it was the last 5 years, people not believing it until it happens. Which is fine, its your choice whether you choose to support or not. The films all got released in the past for free anyway. People also thought the game would either never be completed, or that they'd just milk it forever and never do a film again.
I don't know how many times they have to prove people wrong to get it through their heads.