This does not however relate to Star Citizen, as the majority of criticism has nothing to do with delays or the desire to get the game faster, but about the poor communication and honesty about their own internal deadlines.

That's it completely.

I think in the case of Rockstar who is perhaps one of the highest performing publisher in terms of quality products, it is instantly forgiven that they wish to spend more time polishing their games.

Yeah, what's to forgive when they aren't even selling it yet?

Star Citizen is in this aspect, never delayed, as it never is held accountable for what it needs to deliver and when, and that ambiguity is entirely due to the management team taking advantage of their backers.

It's not even the Management Team wholesale. It's Chris being unconstrained by internal checks or external parties, abetted by Marketing and co-opting Developers in the process, who surely take no pleasure in selling fictions about upcoming gameplay or unreasonable dates.

That's one of the big (unintended) takeaways from The Road to CitizenCon. It's all right there - the perpetual tension that exists between the grandiose fictions Chris declares fact, the tug-of-war between developers on Team Reality and Chris and the Marketing staff on Team Dream.

Chris wants a Frank Herbert Sandworm in his demo because it will make for a showstopping ending to a high stakes public demo meant to bolster confidence and enthusiasm for the game's soaring ambitions. Yet no worm is coming and claims by Chris "we'll put a worm in there someday" are even less plausible than past docking collar claims which recently got deep-sixed.

Per Jump Point:

Hannes A: Do we know if CR was joking about the desert worm, btw? :)

Amit Boparai, Level Designer, F42: Worm was defo a joke.

Ricky J: Of course. :)

(Later...)

Chris Roberts: Worm WAS NOT A JOKE.

Todd Papy, Design Director, F42: I just don’t want to be selling something that we might not have in the game …

Chris R: Sure. We aren’t selling something that won’t be in the game. We are going to have creatures on our planets. We’re going to have xenomorphs on wrecks, dangerous alien creatures on planets and so on, probably even a space whale / leviathan.

Oooooookay.

Ironically, we only saw one of the two huge demos CIG toiled over at CitizenCon. The one including real gameplay from a very overdue, much anticipated title didn't debut, despite enormous anticipation and prior guidance to expect, due to stability issues. The other demo did, and it featured an epic fictional gameplay moment we won't actually experience in game and that developers didn't want represented as real, even as Chris insisted it was.

That's encapsulates the real problem, not the delays themselves. Delays can be forgiven when you trust the party pleading for patience. It's a lot harder when they keep asking for money in the process of selling you fictions and excuses.