Based on how many titles in the past have pulled off the “launch in Early Access, grab a lot of money in the early hype, disappear” strategy, I have to imagine something like that was the intention.
They probably assumed that there would be a big enough pool of naive fools that would believe in the game for just long enough to get away with launching a below minimum viable product and cashing out once the reasonable refund window was surpassed. And, considering that they were the best performer in Steam for a hot minute, you can’t blame them for thinking that.
They just overestimated how much they could get away. Which, considering how much some other titles have gotten away with in the past, is saying a lot.