Ultimately though, jumping between a bunch of cancelled projects is not fulfilling and likely to lead to burn out in the long run.
This is a game which was being developed by a studio called Campo Santo. The devs were hired by Valve, but they could still work on their game at Valve. At some point, the devs were really happy (based on their social media accounts) to switch and devote all their time to Half-Life Alyx instead, and the development of their original game was put on an indefinite hold. Now that Half-Life Alyx was released, what does that quote imply for The Valley of Gods?
Also, if you accept that Valve no longer runs on "work on what you want", as you imply, it means people will be forced to work on and finish that game.
The fact that the store page still exist and is up (which is more than you can say for any unfinished Valve project) gives a clear sign that they still plan to finish it.