Wish I could be as optimistic as you are but I'm beginning to think the whole coming back was to reignite interest in the game so that he could re-up his Patreon subscribers. One of the reasons I believe this is due to him not being forthcoming with how much his Patreon subscribers are providing him monetary wise towards the game's development. This information can be provided for everyone to see on the Patreon front page if they so choose to reveal this information like this Patreon developer is doing here but Vic is one of those who is choosing not to reveal this information:
View attachment 4398916
In my eyes, that's a red flag that it's more about the money, not being transparent on this front.
Anyway, with their war with Russia, he could have been bombed for all we know which I also realize in the back of my mind so I hate to think this way but given that I am all the same, I'm not going to be disingenuous and act like I'm not doing so and acting as if everything is hunky-dory.
Just me being somewhat bitter that v0.3.1d wasn't released when it was so close to being so. Not that his health isn't paramount here, I get that. Just sucks he comes back after the health hiatus issues, he clarifies he wasn't dead during that whole episode and details that he'll remain in regular contact without going MIA this go around, yet here we are again.