While I’m absolutely not vocal about it as you are, I’d say almost 100% of what you feel is shared by myself too. I even bought two pockets (one for me and one for someone else) and we’ve been amazingly disappointed at the progress of updates on it. Yes they created the OpenFPGA thing, but that was obviously to not get left behind by new emerging platforms like the MisterFPGA and (to a less extent) the Steam Deck.
And will all things on the Internet, they developed a fan base that is mostly pretty defensive about them because they believe if Analogue died tomorrow, all of a sudden this type of project would stop existing (I feel anyhow).
I started looking differently at Analogue after mGBA’s developer endrift told their story about their experience with them (worth a read)
It’s fine Vanillaware, we’ll keep pirating and emulating your games and play them anyway.