Yes you are right, beta phase is much more accurate. Its a beta game that made it to trending, the top 'app' in all the world.
And you might be right about 'the right way' to do things. But I don't think they would be where they are if they followed that advice.
Don't get me wrong, I've been feeding them suggestions in Discord since the beginning, there is a lot to improve. But I have literally refreshed the page to see changes suggested 20 minutes ago in the channel being tested live.
Money, well, it messes stuff up. Any back of the napkin calculation would have told you this was not an investment vehicle. Most people that 'invested' too much probably have too much free steem anyway, that they wanted to give it to one of the best dev teams on the chain.
I'm still in the discord, btw, trying to help them make the best game possible, because they are not there yet. Long way to go too, if you ask me. If they test-net every change we're not going to make it.