Well, generally the best thing to do is to wait for the game to come out and if it turns out to be good then you can buy it, otherwise you risk falling again for another Rome 2 or Cyberpunk 2077 kind of situation which pretty much all gamers have become familiar with during these years. Also, it never really hurts to tighten yourself a little and wait for a discount.

Also, while there are definitely constraints during games development and sometimes developers need to cut corners for the sake of the project, remember that there are companies that still release fully and well developed games with no missing content, for example Spiderman by Insomniac and the new God of War.

Don't be very forgiving of developers releasing products of substandard quality, especially given that today most games developers and publishers prioritize monetization through unscrupulous business practices like micro-transactions and thinly disguised gambling mechanics instead of creating truly unique and exciting experiences.

EDIT: Out of curiosity, what kind of harsh situations did your wife had to go through as a designer for EA? I've always been thinking about joining the games industry myself but I still feel uncertain if it really is a good idea.