Don't use beta and early access interchangeably. it was early access.It was an in-development title. How many betas have you played where your rank carried into the actual release? it is not an uncommon thing for EA games to wipe progress upon its completion.
And to answer your other quote, the game had 1080p and 4k cutscenes, which was why the game size was so big. Now the 4k scenes will be a separate free download.
I don't recall any serious early access games that wouldn't carry progress into release.
It is not RPGM title. It is absolutely possible to detect save version and then do a conversion upon loading.Lol, there's nothing to defend. Anytime a game's save files isn't backwards compatible is because the adjustment to the game was too Large, which is generally a GOOD thing. You don't really play betas expecting saves to be compatible through the whole development process.
But there is simpler way that newbie devs use to not force people to play from start again- provide option to start from last patch / version.