I don't read any of that into what Mengy is saying. He's giving his opinion based on what he sees, and feels, as we all do. But on the SRV he correctly points out differences between the SLF and SRV:
"It's why we can dismiss the ship while in the SRV but NOT while in the SLF, the two vehicles are handled completely differently. It's also why multicrew can't work with the SRV either.
In short, Elite's vehicular code is fragmented and disjointed, and I suspect it would make any first person mode for the game nigh impossible to implement. My hunch is FD discovered this and decided to rewrite the core now in order to not only put space legs in but make all other vehicles handled consistently too. '
Whether or not it's fragmented doesn't really matter to the point he is making. The SRV was never claimed to put us into this awful excuse of teleprescence. We are in the SRV and the ship stays put, unmanned, or is dismissed to safe orbit. Teleprescence, unlike for everything else it seems, has not applied to the SRV except, incongruously, when we enter the turret mode.
But for the next Big Thing, if we can get out of the SRV, or even the ship, on a planet or in a station, there has to be a compatibility with the existing code. Mengy is suggesting that may not work at present, and a way has to be found to marry the two together.
Then there's the issue of our relationship with NPCs. At the moment we don't see any. If we walk around our ships, we will have to be able to see our crew members. So the limitations of what they appear unable to do at present will have to be overcome next time around.
And you say
"What's the point in spending half year to iron out the bugs to just remove all of that work afterwards. A monumental waste of time and money." Which is a clue to what is going on. It won't be entirely a new Cobra engine that takes over next time, but all the new features will be bolted onto the existing programming that we have now.
I should imagine Legs/Atmos/Bases are being developed just fine in their isolation on Dev computers, but it's how the final result interacts with the existing base game when the two are married together is what is causing FD so much concern. They have to understand how the ARX fiasco caused so much disruption and dare not introduce the carriers (which must be close to completion if the trailer was any sign of this) into the existing 'back end.'
They've estimated 6 to 8 months work to get the existing game ready for marrying to the New Era . Then, they say, they will introduce the FCs. Fleet Carriers might become the test of whether they can match the existing features to the new game without major disruption.
But being cynical, I can see further delays to hold carriers as a carrot (Fleet Carrots?
) in case there are further delays to New Era, or some stuff has to be left out entirely from New Era.
Meanwhile, we will remain in 'maintenance mode' with IIs to keep the masses 'happy' until the end of next year.