You must have accidentally clicked on the wrong thread because you couldn't possibly be talking about Midnight Paradise, right? The game's been in development hell for months, and even after switching engines, is still a buggy, and still for some, unplayable mess.
I have to admit that I have just now checked it out.

So I didn't realize it was in dev hell. That's disappointing, of course.
Summertime Saga has hand-drawn content, which is a lot more effort than posing a few basic pre made assets, and happening to own a giant rendering rig. The comparisons get worse with the 25,000 that LL makes vs the 4,000 or or so that PhillyGames makes. CoBD is arguably the most refined vn made for this audience, the benchmark imho.
Absolutely - STS has awesome hand-drawn content. But the last really big update was like, how long ago? For me, and looking at the thread on it, many others as well, that dude is milking his audience. Which I'm cool with, but I just stopped caring after the last "remade Jenny update". I started getting into DAZ two years ago and I not only spent a lot of money, but the learning curve was really steep at times. I'm still learning new things everyday. It's not just about owning a big rig and it's suddenly magically rendering itself. It's a lot of learning if you want stuff to look decent. One could even weaken your "big rig" comment with the fact that you could alternatively outsource your rendering to external render farms, which is even easier if you use Poser. It's not just rigging something and be done with it. There's a good reason why this devs games look way better than 90% of Renpy games out there.
And concerning CoBD, it being the benchmark, yeah, I absolutely agree with you. But for me, the beautiful, perfect (!) renders were just like watching X-Art in comparison to some real actual porn content. Too perfect, too artsy, just didn't strike a nerve with me. Everyone is different with what he wants. But hell, sure, Phillygames do deserve every dollar they get and more. But their game has been around since February and they are already up to almost 5000 bucks a month... I don't think Dreams of Desire was cashing those bucks after less than 6 months of being around. The 25k the dev makes are a testament to this dev actually finishing a project on a high level throughout. So some of your comparisons aren't completely fair I think.
You may not want a little character depth, but there's others here who want something more than a HoneyPop for incest, unlocking a couple of renders after minutes of random clicking, which is what this is shaping up to be. Just opinions here, they seem critical because LL used to be a top 3 dev that I patronized and admired once upon a time.
I do think that most devs are in it for the money and not for expressing their art or inner thoughts. I also think that it shows, just based on who makes the most cash, that people want hot chicks and lots of fucking over some girls that are written so well that you could actually fall in love with them just by reading their lines. I can not remember too many girls where I'd say "yeah this chick is totally unique and I'd totally recognize her out of a crowd". They do exist, but they are rare just due to the nature of these games.
And dude, I think it's important to be critical, as openly as possible. We're in this forum to talk about these games. Just stated what I think and you did the same. I'm cool with all that.