Something that stood out to me in reading that, that doesn't seem to be a major issue for us, is they were battling the engine the whole way. The thing in their letter that I feel applies to this project is that it's being developed via forums and IRC, which they had problems with, and as it's all volunteers it's hard to say who can and can't work on this (and when you say someone can, how long will it be before they up and vanish?).
The final thing that stood out to me, and I fell this is the most important, is that they had trouble with versions, and didn't seem to back anything up.
But it's sad that seven years of work has seemingly gone to waste.
