i feel like thats not quite 100% accurate, but i do understand where youre coming from. from the sounds of it the devs want to make a fully complete game where ALL the side characters have some kind of storyline, but i do agree the game was in a far more developed state before. that being said i would guess only around 50-60% of the content they want the final version to have was actually implemented in the original game before the tech update(s), they have a hell of a lot more planned. i do agree that keeping the monthly patreon subscription open was not the best and i do agree that the progress was alarmingly slow during that period, but i do still think there was far too much content that needed to be added before the game was complete for them to put off doing the rework/remaster until it was complete.
as for the "expansion pack/DLC". i understand the argument but if you try to actually figure out what that would mean, its just that it would mean they slowly release more and more content as development continues instead of waiting until the game is entirely completeto release the game, aka exactly what they were doing before the tech update and what they are continuing to do after the tech update. the only difference is now the game has been reworked to a point where they need to play catch-up with themselves so these "expansion packs" are actually just "catch-up packs" to get them to the point they were before the big rework, once they reach that point then it will be expansion packs as you know them.
im just as frustrated as everyone else is with this projects current state, but i also know this is likely the best course of action in the long run. after the rework, the dev team will have had to entirely rework everything behind the scenes as well such as their workflow processes (how the build is planned, how the build is prototyped, how they code, how art is implemented, how the build is tested, how is quality checked, etc.) which is going to dramatically increase development time in the short run while they adjust their entire development workflow to the changes that they will have needed to make.
yea i do agree that the long period of time it took for what is; (all things considered, as mentioned above) quite a small amount of content, is a bit extreme and quite honestly suspicious. BUT im glad the devs are tackling the game again, so hopefully development picks up a little