Forewarning: this isn't really aimed at you, It's clear that you were mostly in defense of Perverteer, this is just a rant aimed at the whole "budget isn't an excuse" viewpoint that I see way too often.
"Since when is budget an excuse for poor writing?" Almost always.
No money == Less time able to be spent on writing beyond day-to-day life.
More money == More time that can be spent to create a great product.
Skill is only gained by practice, and practice is dictated by free time around the rest of real life. TFTUV (as with SL) is still just as much practice as a throw-away project that will never see the light of day is.
If you have to be worried about your job tomorrow, or next week, or next month, so that you can pay the rent and keep eating, you can't focus as well on something that is in essence, just a hobby.
A hobby that other people happen to enjoy and can choose to help fund if they feel like, any day Perverteer wants they could stop donations and completely quit working on the game and they would have no obligation to anyone to finish it, since no one was forced to pay for a finished game, the donations are just there to show appreciation and to help offset the extra time being put in to give us all something we have the privilege of enjoying for a few minutes, and sometimes it also helps to pay the bills as well.
I don't understand why people uphold someone who's working on a hobby and sharing it with the world for free to such high standards that the person criticizing likely couldn't reach. If it bugs you enough to not enjoy it anymore, stop playing. Simple as that.
I would agree with you if this game didn't have so much clear effort put into it, it's clearly not just laziness on Perverteer's part, it's just the fact that they neither have infinite amounts of experience, nor a massive team to help them with story writing.