I was not privy to the business discussion regarding Exilebuddy. But any project manager worth his salt can easily answer this question...
- Tankleader requires 0.1 developers to maintain.
- Exilebuddy requires a full-time, VERY senior (and gifted) developer to maintain.
Such things are also influenced by how much churn the game owner applies to the game client for each patch. My guess is that GGG applied a considerable amount of churn. So it was "run full tilt" just to stay even. Doing this and maintaining backward compatibility such that other components of the system don't break can be a Herculean effort.
My guess (and the information from
Hawker's several posts in this thread) lead me to believe that Exilebuddy requires two full-time developers to support the product. Yet, the market is simply not there to support the second developer. So, the choices are 1) ongoing excessive downtimes after each patch, or 2) terminate the product since it is unsustainable with one developer. Either way, those trying to make money from the game lose out. Such decisions are very difficult to make.
If the above indeed was the case, I believe the right decision was made. Best to force people to move on, rather than be a continuous disappointment with product delivery.
Product development is SOOO much more complex than most people realize.
cheers,
chinajade