In hindsight the best choice would have been to wrap up this game with that frankensteined codeThis is pretty much true.
The tech update was going to happen. It needed to happen because the coding (not RenPy - but the coding for Summertime Saga to run in RenPy) was frankensteined barely holding together. Like Scotty said in Star Trek "She can't take much more, Cap'n!"
The last choice for subscribers to vote on was which was to come first:
Rhonda update, or
Tech update
Had anyone actually figured it would take anywhere near this long, they probably would have voted for Rhonda.
Ether way, we'd be right where we are now. Just with a Rhonda update before it.
I am sure they could have made it work long enough for that.
Then start on a sequel, I am struggling to see the 3-6 years effort is worth it. They could have wrapped up the game in a satisfying way by now.
This is some of the worse project management I have ever seen.