I mentioned something similar previously. There is a serious disconnect in art style/writing from before the long break and the season 2 stuff. I thought that maybe BD had hired someone to do the work for him. My original rational that he was stumbling back into his groove after a 2 year hiatus hasn't really held up. The change in the game is too significant.
One thing that stuck out to me was the fake drama bit "the girls have disappeared, must go search for them". It was so odd and contrived and poorly done, it didn't mesh with anything previous in the story. The other thing is the radical change in behavior of some of the girls (Natalie going from sweetheart to psycho, Skye's sudden forwardness, etc.). As a writer, your characters are more than just words or a bio. Making them behave radically different without any explanation is pretty odd.
What hasn't changed is BD's word salad expositions on Patreon. So I think he's still involved in the game, maybe just more in the *cough* Mackenzie roll...
Like you said, the biggest tell is the characters.
I write stories, and an important part of any story I write is the characters. I really like to flesh them out before even touching on the story itself. To me, without the characters meaning something, the rest of your story is no good without the characters that actually make your story and it makes them more meaningful and "alive". The "new" BD, if there is one, seems to only care about bringing meaningless LI's into the story, but not to improve the product or appease the fans. More to keep the money flowing.
Before, BD seemed to concentrate (and put a lot of effort into) the main LI's, teasing about Harper, her daughter, the step mom, etc. But as far as getting with them, he never seemed to want to go beyond teasing or suggesting it. But Jamie, Shauna, Ethan, and all of the original S1 love interests had a lot of attention to their detail. This means a writer who cares and puts time into the characters. He even took time to make BIOS for them, something you do not always see made public.
Now, since the end of S1 and the entire S2, an uglier version of Harper got with the MC and new girls run into the story. Then, they get pounded by Ethan, and exit stage left to make way for the next and only show up in the background in scenes. He even named a girl 4T, something I cannot see the original BD doing. I have never met anyone with a number in her name, she is likely the 40th conceived LI for Ethan, hence her name, but it is just lazy to call her that regardless of her "place". How hard is it come up with a girl's name? Imagine if he had named Jamie or Harper "1st" or "10th", the "name" alone would instantly make them disposable and quit your caring about them.
I believe there is chance you hit the nail on the head, he maybe is still involved and likely had little parts here and there, but if you really think about it, the entire S2 seems more like someone imitating the original concept than all the same guy.
I do not think an online presence is hard to imitate by any means. We have no idea what these developers actually look like in person, unless they reveal themselves, so they could literally be anybody. Or be an actual woman using a male presence, vice versa.
I am convinced our theory is absolutely true, just the way this game has progressed is telling me there is more than one person behind the scenes. IMO, the new renders are not improvements, I see them as inferior to the originals but just using better character models due to progression with the Genesis/Victoria models.
The lips used to have the duck face, now if you look at her whole face in the new renders, the whole entire face has that quality now. Harper did not even have the crease on the side of the lips before (original BD trademark, Jamie exhibit A), not prominent like now at least.
