Felt that way for almost 2 years. SG was by far the game I most enjoyed. It was interesting and unique with a compelling story and engaging atmosphere. But everytime Ocean tinkered with the established cannon it started falling off for me. The fist couple chapters remakes were mostly fine but this last one...the amount of changes to chapter 2 made this game fall of from my top 5 and I don't see it ever recovering. I couldn't even enjoy the Bella route this time around. Game feels almost dead...like most of the emotion of previous versions was ripped out of it.
There were changes in Ch 3, but they were focused on removing music because of licensing issues in a creation with adult content. This also impacted the Sai fight animation which was tied to music that was removed (and the fight was changed to a series of stills). This is all in preparation for the Steam Season 1 release of Summers Gone.
Ocean gets one chance to make a first impression on Steam so I'm glad that he is taking the time to give SG the added continuity and depth that the CH 1 & 2 reworking is/will give SG.
Does it slow down the development of new content right now - yes.
Do I believe that major success on Steam (which I think he will have with SG) will give him the resources to improve SG going forward into Season 2 and beyond - absolutely Yes.
That is more $ for great music, additional freelance work that Ocean can hire others to do and even part time or full-time team members to take over music licensing and help with other aspects of the AVN.
I feel like I'm one of the only people that enjoyed the rework, but I can totally see where you're coming from. I'm just ready for the story to continue and develop more.
I'll add my vote of a yes to just how good the new CH 2 content was.
The quality increase becomes even more noticeable when I went from the new CH 2 content to the old CH 2 content (when Amber is driving the MC home after the falling out with Bella).