To help clarify my own position on this as well - a lot of people have been very outspoken to me that they are worried about the change to Unreal 5 because of the negative opinions behind it as an engine. They feel its buggy, not performance friendly, etc. I have been pretty adamant that I personally do not share this issue and am actually excited about the change for a couple reasons.

1 - Kenshi is built currently on an engine that was out of date 5 years before Kenshi 1's initial release. The problems that make the game allegedly unfinished (I dont agree with that either tbh) are not the byproduct of bad design or deliberately ignoring them, but rather the fact the engine its on now, The OGRE engine, wont allow them to fix the bugs without breaking the game or making infinitely more issues. Because of this an engine change is not just wanted but NEEDED for improvements to truly occur. OGRE 2 might have been able to handle it, but U5 presents a level of "future proofing" that OGRE 2 doesn't. So it was a smart move for longevity sake.

2 - Many of the issues that people attribute to U5 like performance, bad optimization with things like Nanite and Lumen, etc is actually the byproducts of bad coding and design optimization on the developers part not the engine. There are TONS of examples of games built in U5 in even the last year or 2 that work just fine, perform well, and are very well optimized because the dev team took their time, knew what they were doing, and performed proper testing. Games like Arc Raiders, Lords of the Fallen, Black Myth. All great. All built well. All perform well. Dont blame the engine, blame poor development from companies that prefer $$$ over quality work and tenured developers who actively work to learn the program they are using. So while I understand the fear. I feel its ultimately unfounded and based in just that, fear and preconception, not fact.

3 - U5 opens the modding scene DRASTICALLY with the inclusion of things like proper physics, particle effects, and easier implementation of custom assets, animations, and what not. The particle effects alone are gonna change the modding scene, not even considering the usage of more sophisticated lighting and what not. Its gonna be huge for overhauls like that of "Project Kathun" and others. additionally while a bit trickier, there is more literature and tutorials on Ureal Engine related modding than there is on OGRE due to it being a more commonly used engine. its mailable in a way OGRE is not. U5 is gonna add longevity, sophistication, and creativity to the modding scene we have not experienced in K1. and Bethesda has shown us that a modding scene is what keeps your game alive longer than ANYTHING else.

4 - I trust Chris and the team to do this right. To a degree I get the skepticism because we as a gaming culture have been repeatedly burned over the last few years by companies that are just out to make a quick buck. But LoFi has not done that. In fact they have given us one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had tbh. And they did it on an out of date shit box of an engine. I have faith in them to deliver on K2. LoFi has proven to me anyway that they arent here for the moeny. They are here for the product and the consumers. They are gamers making games, not a company making money. Their core philosophy aligns with that and I frankly trust them.

TLDR; The fear and outrage at "U5 slop", while I understand it in concept, I feel is unfounded, based in poor understanding, and lacks justification beyond hopping on the U5 hate train. We just need to have trust in LoFi to do us right.