8 years is a really long time. We could speculate about their overall life circumstances. It’s a studio of three to four people IIRC. If one steps away from the project for a while, it can make a huge difference.

Also, having to practically scrap the whole thing and start over is something that happens in game development. It may have happened to them once or twice, and it’s hard to admit it publicly. Some will misinterpret it as incompetence of the devs.