I second this, there have been many times where I check all the socials/patreon for VN updates and can't find a crumb of info. Like yeah I get VN's are hard and take a lot of time but just a quick, "hey I'm still working on this" at least every few months makes a huge difference. I'll keep patient and just check again later.
I've seen some go a year without any updates and it just kills any interest. I mean there was an extreme example where an author for a different VN didn't update in over a year and it turned out they were in a war-torn country and likely loss internet access. Obviously they were focused on living.
Pretty much I'm just saying short, quick updates are much appreciated. It's all too common that VNs go on indefinite hiatus and I don't want to assume that. (those situations suck but are completely valid)