Worst possible outcome?

Here's the third chapter on my luck with the Imperial Crusade Recon Squad by Dead Earth Miniatures, AKA "Dave Gallagher's Mohawk Space Marine Scouts".

Last week I explained to you how the creator had threatened some backers with a cancellation of their orders because of the allegedly abuse on the comments section (an abuse that's not there, unless he's deleting comments before we see them).

So, before I start with the rant, let me show you...

Exhibit one: Resin Cast Miniatures.

Here it is. The first thing we read in the KS page: You're paying for high quality (1) resin cast (2) miniatures.

Well, last project update (meant to be delivered a year ago but allegedly will start shipping next monday) said that:

I've made the decision to produce these as printed resin rather than vacuumed case resin (all the photos shown of the production models have been printed, which have received positive comments).

I've worked in resin casting for 8 years (including in the design studio at GW), so I know resin very well.

This decision has been made to get the absolute highest quality product to you. Cast resin has many compromises and I was not happy with some of the samples I had seen and the timeframes given. Models inevitably had noticeable split lines which need cleaning and each scout needed to be split into 7 parts (on average).

Cast models need to be cast from prints, so you get a generational loss of quality. A cast can never be as good as the print it was made from because of this. 

These prints have been printed on 8k printers at 0.023 resolution, using TGM-7 resin, which is about the best you can get on the market. It has been especially formulated for wargaming miniatures and is superior to smooth on resin in my opinion (this is also costing me more than casting them, before makes the suggestion I am trying to save money). 

Models are now on average in 4 parts, with zero mould lines and almost zero cleaning needed. 

In my honest opinion, these are far higher quality than would be achieved with cast resin and the material is much less brittle and takes paint better. 

Stephen added some pictures of production with the usual problems of 3d printing, as one backer commented:

[...] sample pictures you shown all had issues. First model had a missing knife handle that looked like it wasn't supported properly, cape on the second had visible layers lines because of the angle of the print, heavy had print lines too. All appear to have residue from unclean IPA too.

This is a big change to what was promised. At this point I would rather have files to print myself, and I think a lot of others will think the same. If you're trying to gain back some favour after the issues on this and the other KS's I'd urge you to consider this.

Feels like an absolute minor complaint after all of this, but the plan was for the packs to be separate too.

After that announcement, 2 things happened.

First, a ton of people went into the comments and asked for a refund. Totally justified IMHO. I paid almost 90€ for a scout squad and some extra arms; that's in the normal to expensive price range for casted resin, but ultra expensive for regular 3d printed models (even using the best machines), and that's not counting the whole year delay. If I was certain that I'll be getting the money, I'd ask for a refund. But that's not happening, this is KS and I don't think refunds are a thing.

Second, some guys (as me) saw that the most realistic outcome for this was asking for the STLs plus the physical models. At least you can make conversions and replace broken arms or heads if the resin breaks. My plan was to replace the weapons and use chain swords, monofilament knives and boltguns. Except the heavy weapons, the regular "uzis" on the models aren't that cool.

There's a minority of people asking for the STLs and no models. Really. They prefer to print them themselves, even when they already paid for the models. Classy move.

For me? I'll pay customs & taxes added to the already ultra-expensive models, so I'm really, really disappointed (and those are big words for a guy that lived through the whole Heroquest 25 anniversary KS fiasco).

I'll drop the production pictures below so you can decide if those are worth the money we paid for (and the time we waited too).

So, do you have any opinion? (besides the fact that KS is always a risk, something that is so obvious it embarrassing to say it out loud).