The Linux version crashes on loading a saved game for me for some reason. I tried to run it from the terminal to see if I could get an output, but it wouldn't start there (said it couldn't find one of the SDL libraries).

Yeah that's probably a pretty fair length to take it.

I've seen other people say things like "oh well I backed it on kickstarter and now I've thrown my money down the toilet" or "they stole my kickstarter money"...  but wasn't like they didn't know the risks when they put money on a kickstarter in the first place.

Yeah, I think I said somewhere before that with Overload having turned out to actually be the game I waited 20 years for (and it still feels weird to say that!) the worst D:U can do for me is not matter.
I'd certainly like it if it did matter.  But like any good cat with a belly full of antelope, the thing I want most is something I already have.

...making triple A graphics...
The focus was on the graphics...

Eh, I dunno, Hunter...if I'm perfectly honest, I was never really that impressed with DU's graphics, and I remember others who'd say they'd agree with me on that. There was just always something about them that seemed naggingly unpolished about them, even when the game was shown running at max settings. Not enough to spoil the game for me of course, but enough for it to stick out. DU may have the superior graphics rendering capability technically than Overload, but it never felt like it to me, so I'd argue DU was never using that to its full potential then.

They certainly weren't well optimized at the very least. The last time I got to play DU, the game looked its best at the max settings, but if starting turning down any of those settings, the graphics very quickly started looking more and more...underwhelming, to put it politely, and it'd still run laggy. Don't get that with Overload, or a lot of other modern games I play. Though in Descendant's defense, I know they were trying to address this problem shortly before Little Orbit entered the picture, so it's my hope this has been addressed since then...but regardless, I remain skeptical about its quality of graphics ever really being triple-A level or even really trying to be.

Still, you're probably right about the feature creep being one of the issues. I do recall a lot of instances on their forums of players coming on to say "hey, can you put this and this into the game?" and, if a good number of players expressed interest too, Descendant usually promised to try and look into it, assuming they wouldn't have to rewrite too much of the game to do it. Descendant had a very "features determined by popular opinion" approach to game development, which is great, but looking back, I could see how it could also nip them in the butts.

But I can also recall plenty of instances where it felt like one had to twist Descendant's arm to include features that should've been obvious, especially ones that were iconic Descent features. Obviously some they couldn't include because of rights issues, but for the others they could, they seemed really slow and reluctant to introduce them.

Like death rolls, which eventually did make it into the game, but only after a lot of pushback from players who'd noticed their absence.

And flares, which were functionally absent for a long stretch of the game's alpha development and despite arguments from players (and me) that flares were wanted and useful in gameplay (something Descendant kept arguing against). When they finally did get in the game, it was a very clunky and unrefined set-up that seemed added more reluctantly and half-heartedly than anything, at least until development went...well...underground (pun intended ).

Personally, I think part of DU's real problem was that Descendant just didn't know what they wanted the game to be, or at least didn't have a super clear picture for it. It probably didn't help that it all started not being Descent at all. Then Interplay offered to stick the Descent brand on it, abruptly changing course on development, converting a game that hadn't been meant to be true Descent into an actual Descent game, and the transition was...more than rough. It left DU feeling like Descent at times, but at other times decidedly like something else, and then at yet other times like some weird hybrid of the two, and not in good ways. It at times it challenged one's belief if it was really going to work out as everyone envisioned.

Especially after Overload entered the picture, and I still argue that this ultimately hurt DU's chances in the end, even without the legal trouble. Especially as Overload undersold, as I fear it made Little Orbit loose whatever faith they had in the project actually breaking even and may have helped spark this dispute in the first place. 

If Descendant had stuck with the initial idea of a multiplayer title with a small singleplayer campaign, we'd probably not be in this situation.

Probably, but that was never really what players wanted, let alone Descendant. They promised that they would do a full-on SP campaign way back with the kickstarter, and it was clear that this more what the community was interested in, because when no SP campaign was immediately forthcoming, DU started getting a lot of flak for putting the focus on multiplayer first, even accusations of not delivering on their promises, at least by those that hadn't done their research and learned Descendant had focused on MP first deliberately, arguing it'll help them balance things for the SP campaign's development. But in the meantime, DU started struggling to hold attention because the MP alone wasn't enough, and the game before it vanished from Steam had been getting mixed reviews from underwhelmed players. It needed that expansive singleplayer campaign, or it probably would've flopped harder than Overload did.

Really, what DU should've done was what Overload did--focused on the singleplayer first and then focused on the multiplayer. I even distinctly recall telling Descendant flat-out that this was probably the smarter choice on their forums, with a number of others agreeing with me, but Descendant was insistent on their MP first, SP later approach. Then, when the above repercussions followed, it probably helped drive Descendant to pursue the deal with Little Orbit in hopes that'll speed things along...until it didn't.

*sigh* Actually, I probably need to stop it here--this is dredging up a lot of suppressed frustrations about DU that I had thought I'd moved past on, and it's only making me feel...well, for lack of a better term, "hukblahblah," as a...particular cartoon horse...once put it. 

I'm a bit more inclined to side with Descendant as well, especially as Little Orbit claims Descendant didn't meet the standards for a final build of the game, but do NOT specify what they interpreted those standards as or what they entailed, and I know that was one BIG point of contention with Descendant over that, seeing Descendant claimed Little Orbit basically wanted them to scrap what they had and completely change their approach to the game up until then.

However, with the clearly heated tempers on both sides, it wouldn't surprise me if details are being exaggerated to make one side seem more demonized than the other, when it's entirely possible mistakes have been made on both sides.

Really, it altogether sounds like a dispute that didn't need to happen, and it's only hurting both sides, as well as the game they're both basically holding hostage over this. 

*sigh* But what can you do, right?