My point is that in software development period there is a “crunch” period when you are closer to release and you are testing stuff and iterating very quickly and you have some longer hours, I’ve personally gone through this and I have an awesome work life. It’s just not as LONG as some of the stories you hear in game development.
My point about development issues is that it is common, don’t know if I had a “smooth” development cycle when trying to launch something. There’s bugs, issues that you find along the way, designs may change. It’s also a creative process which adds complexity because you think your idea was good but it seems that it may not be and you gotta get it right. A design document can only get you but so far.
I personally think that if they aren’t crunching, they should release what they have as long as it is good. Some people want delays so that they can have the package that they want day one, you can and most likely what they are doing is removing features for day one and will work on them post launch which is a normal software development thing. Especially with them saying it’s a platform, they don’t need to crunch, just have a stable release, make your date and you will be fine. I think that the community should be understanding of that.