gleaming torrent
The first few updates by T17 have broken and degraded some of the fundamental components of HLL gameplay. I think it is safe to say that compared to the current state of the game HLL was better off several months back.
However, I realize T17 has only recently taken over the development side of things, so I can understand some bumps in taking over the new IP. At the same time, this has obviously greatly concerned the player base and I think it is important that T17 focus on ensuring the game will be stable and various long-standing bugs will be fixed. Even though these first few updates have not gone over well and the trailer was a bust, I think it is completely possible to regain trust by addressing these fundamental concerns.
It seems perfectly reasonable for T17 to try to monetize game content, but this will only work if the game isn't regularly being broken and if the new content is enjoyable. Until the performance is fixed and the British faction is made playable, I don't think the player base will have much faith in any of the planned updates.
Overall there needs to be better QA. Even if the team doesn't want to hire new QA people per-se, I bet some of the player base would be willing to download a test version of the game (which steam supports having) and do some matches prior to new releases. The bugs related to bolt-action reloads and performance problems would've been easily detected in a single full-scale HLL match.