There has been progress. But it's painfully minimal and (in my opinion) not in the areas in most need. They've added a lot of art assets....tools, weapons, and....ships. Lots of ships. And a few locations.
But the Stanton system (something that was supposed to be finished many many years ago) still isn't done. Crusader is the last planet to add with it's landing zone (Orrison). It's a gas planet and the landing zone is a cloud city so they needed special tech to get that right (so they say). Thus the years of delay.
But from what I can tell, gameplay and game mechanics are still lagging and neglected. The servers are still capped at 35 players (or maybe it's up to 50) and still suffer from crashes, freezes, and low FPS. And gameplay itself still is combat oriented. If you're new and unexperienced in a starter ship, you're fodder for the experience players in the latest alpha combat ship for sale. Doesn't sound fun to me.
Well that's my understanding anyway. Apathy claimed me a couple of years ago. I no longer read the forums daily, nor watch any of their weekly videos. I now just skim their weekly update email.
All I want is SQ42. Just give me a 30 hour, on rails, space opera with some cliche storylines, fun combat, throw in some twists and.....the Hollywood cast will make it worth playing.