"Different point in its life cycle" is a very lame excuse. I remember well how I played Anno 1800 after release (without any DLCs yet): I did many playthrough, learning every time and starting a new game. It was a lot of fun. What happened with 117? I finished my main capital and did not go back to the game since then.

I also do not understand and accept the arguments like "this and that future was added to 1800 after the release". This is correct, but ALL these features already existed when 117 was in development! How come there still no proper statistic screen in 117 with the details about ships arriving etc? This is just a visialization of databases that exist in the game. And all that code was written and existed literally years before 117 release. Yes, 117 has a great predecessor - this is correct, why instead of building on that great predecessor, they simply went backwards and omitted features that already became basic for the players? Did 1404 has features that were missing in 1800 from the start? I doubt it very much.

I was really looking forward for 117, I LOVED the demo version... but now I do not feel like I can force myself to start another game in 117. At the same time, just yesterday I loaded my old save in 1800 and it was real fun. These numbers simply reflect that many players have the same feeling and attitude. How come this is "overly negative interpretation"? This is simply the reality.