But I can't really share the sense of betrayal some seem to have.
So when I look at this from a business perspective I do not blame them at all. They seem convinced that Red Engine was the issue with Cyberpunk and it is an issue they want to avoid in the future. I'm unsure of how much of the issues with the Cyberpunk launch were engine vs. investors wanting to rush the game out/wanting to put the game on two generations of consoles when it probably didn't belong/etc. But they seem convinced it was the engine or at least mostly the engine.
So they went out and fixed their problem. They are excited to implement that fix and move beyond what was a disaster of a launch and over a year spent of not developing anything that would make additional revenue... but just fixing the game they released. On top of that they have the goal of developing two AAA titles side-by-side... and with that I imagine they are eager to get as close to 100% of their staff working on UE5 as possible.
So I get that.
But I also get the sense of betrayal.
CDPR went from releasing what a lot of people (myself included) consider the greatest game of all-time. They promised the next greatest game of all time. They went overboard on those promises. Then they delivered a buggy mess that probably should have been released closer to today's date than when it was actually released. The false promises, the missing features, the buggy mess is on them... even if they admit it.
They then went on to say that Cyberpunk would get AT LEAST as much expansion/DLC content as The Witcher 3. It also seemed heavily implied that it would most likely be getting more. They also went on about how they would have another AAA title out within the next year or two - which I believe was the since scrapped Cyberpunk AAA multiplayer game. Now it seems likely we don't get nearly as much expansion content as The Witcher 3 and there will be no multiplayer version of the game. On top of that DLC/patch content has slowed considerably and the expansion for the game will be released 2+ years after the game debuted.
On top of all of that I would be willing to bet (though I could be wrong!) that we are going to see some more disappointing things in the expansion. I haven't looked at spoilers, but if any part of the expansion happens before the end of the game (like Hearts of Stone) I can almost guarantee that Johnny Silverhand will either be missing from it, silent or have VERY LITTLE to say because Keanu either isn't on board or they weren't willing to pay him for the additional content.
So I can see where people feel betrayed. Before the release of Cyberpunk 2077 they were considered the best in the business. The Witcher 3 expansion content earned them such an immense amount of love and respect from fans... and they lost most of that love and respect. Can they build that back? Sure. But I think the point most fans are making is they shouldn't be in the position to earn it back. Cyberpunk 2077 had good enough 'bones', a good enough 'skeleton' to deliver on all of the promises... they just messed up.
1. They should have waited until closer to release to talk about everything in the game and make promises.
2. They shouldn't have announced the release date for the game if it was in the state it was in.
3. They should have waited another 1-2 years to release the game until it was done (or at least a lot closer to done)... and working off of point 1 they shouldn't have promised a 'last gen' release, it seems like it would have fixed a ton of their issues.
4. Knowing the game was in the state it was they shouldn't have said expansion announcements would come alongside the game.
5. Knowing what they knew for 3 and knowing the engine was a problem they shouldn't have then promised as much or more expansion content than The Witcher 3.
If they end up breaking the expansion content promise I think they should deliver a statement to their fanbase and just be like - hey... we messed up. We thought we could deliver this stuff and we can't - with the issues we face it would just take too long. We wanted to give you as much as we could, but now we have to move on to our next projects... we'll do better in the future. Not because I think I or fans deserve that - but I think that would be a good business decision on their part.