Isn’t this the “squint and this isn’t the game we abandoned to make palworld” game that they abandoned to make palworld?

No no, they're still working on it! Only 6 years of early access to go

[...] as we approach Version 1.0, our priority is not simply adding as much new content as possible. Instead, much of our focus is on cleaning up and refining the existing experience, addressing outstanding issues, and making Craftopia as enjoyable and polished as possible for its full release. That means the 1.0 update may not be as focused on sheer content volume as some players might expect.

Meanwhile Palworld's 1.0 changelog was like thirty pages long. They're really not beating the allegations that this is just them shoving Craftopia out the door to get rid of a lodestone around their neck.