I'm still not sure I would believe it at that point.

This is the best take on here. There's no more "just trust me bro" tolerance anymore, too many things have just turned into vaporware over the years and now until I physically see it, it doesn't exist

Key part is that its not to start working on SC but the gate keeping of tech from sq42 to SC is open. What was showcased this weekend will start to be ported into SC.

I'm sure there have been mistakes, but calling them incompetent is a bit of a stretch. Yes, it's an absolutely eye watering amount of time and money, but they are trying to make an online universe with a high level of detail in which you can move between planets and all kinds of environments completely seamlessly. If they weren't trying to make something with such a high level of difficulty, then I suspect they would have released a finished product by now, but they are making stuff nobody has made before, at least not at this scale.

Perhaps inability to scale things back is a bit of a problem, but I think Chris Roberts realises he's not likely to get a chance to get a basically unlimited amount of money (in game dev terms) to make the ultimate dream game he and many other people always wanted, so I'd imagine that's the reason they are just going all out.

Infinite feature creep

It's not money laundering. It's crowdfunding as a primary business model. The point isn't to finish the game, but to keep baiting people with carrots-on-sticks until they get sick of the grift and the money dries up.

Spoiler: it won't be.

They are like vermin: everywhere and hard to get rid of.

Only if they make a full release next year. Otherwise, they'll set a new record for slowest development cycle, assuming they finally release it. You can't forget that Duke Nukem only actually got the medal because they actually released it.

Anakin/Padmé meme