Sorry my previous reply was actually a bit short and asinine. Can you see how it looks though that side projects are being pushed over things the community have been asking for since pretty much release?
I think an issue here is that "what the community has been asking" is not necessarily what we can, want or will do. There are a lot of things that are requested every day and in an ideal world we would do all of them.
But there are a lot of limitations and also sometimes just things we don't feel will add value. We think Hardcore Mode is a fun addition to the game, didn't take anything away from somebody and didn't stop us doing more stuff.
We are continuously developing more content for the game and will have news on Episode 3 and beyond in the new year. We also understand that some players are very unhappy that we're not doing Survival, Underground or any other TD1 mode in the game. We therefore will take that feedback and see what parts of these modes we can take and implement in things we work on or will work on.