Trust me, going that route would've been a major mistake with the major overhaul systems that are interconnected. Setting unrealistic expectationing based on something that said in spring and later recanted when I got knee deep in completely rework the ai, sound engine and all the interaction systems is just silly and waiting till the end of the year to really see things put togther is hardly a stretch especially when it comes to game development.
Additionally, burning out a very small hobbyist team to rush stuff out while during a transition phase is always a horrible mistake and taking this route allowed me to collaborate much more with them then usual. I"ve made this mistake before and I am not doing it again even if it does upset a few people waiting patiently on the updates
There is far more going on then just updates to the model and graphical pipeline especially with the art and sound but it's best people understand that we have our eyes set to december now for the big jump to alpha 2. And again, doing a gameplay focus release each month before the systems were in would've ended up as a disaster.