Actually I think the flaw in your logic is that A:CM was actually "in" production the entire time. Which I highly doubt. Its PR, of course they will pour honeyed potion in your ears, and get you chanting "GEARBOX, GEARBOX". There is no fricken way this game had been worked on for this long and turns out this bad, unless it a DNF scenario. Start, Stop, Start, Stop etc Then they get a green light and rush it into the limelight and release it when it really needed to be overhauled.
Ive played game mods that have been in production since 2003 and with each patch or new version they go back through and update the older content to keep the game looking current.
AVP 2010 was buggy and and imbalanced as shit on release, it got patched and became better. PC got the best patching. I did enjoy it for about 6 months, but I dont bother now because its a broken game.