Still no landing on earth-like planets thought :-(
Is the game really on life support though? I only play sporadically and don't really keep up to date with the news, other than the ones you get in the launcher and it seems to be a healthy game as far as I can tell.
This is how game development works.
You only need the senior engine engineers when you are tackling hard problems (e.g. they would have been roped in for planetary landing). You only need artists when art is being added to the game. Multicrew? Probably needs a senior network coder or two. You can't pay people to sit around and do nothing, and you can't sack people with in-depth knowledge about your IP - so you put them on another project. It's almost like consulting, but for a single entity who so happens to be yourself.