The "2-3 updates ahead " practice is not followed by all companies. From what I tracked on steamdb, the development cycle for JWE2 went only 1 update ahead, so the layoff effect might be visible earlier.
On the other hand we cannot currently rely on steamdb in guessing the state of things. The current drop in number of commits (or simply saying changes in source code) for JWE2 is most likely related to the currently tested content. Things will be clearer after the new pdlc hits the pre-release and media phase; at that moment new signs of work should be visible on steamdb (hopefully).
The earliest report of Frontier having layoffs throughout this entire year, and between now and 2019, is October 17. That’s far too early for any of their older game’s content developing processes to be significantly affected within the nest
several months.
Plenty of the concerns of them having layoffs is mainly from the fact that several other game companies around the world, as well as any other tech company, are doing it. But it alone is not a smoking gun to mean anything significant for them or their already released games and their content updates and PDLCs.
The reason why Frontier isn’t making enough satisfactory money is mostly because their most recent game title releases and their Foundry portfolio weren’t working as well. It should also be noted in other reports, they state they are confident they can get back on track, but only time will tell of they are successful or not in doing that.
Edit: After some more thorough investigation time, turns out they really are doing layoffs. BUT, if they have been doing layoffs in some form before that date, it’s probably not
too much of it yet like plenty of other game companies, and happening not too long ago, like 3 months for example. If it was happening since April or March, that’s no reason to explain why most of 2023’s updates “don’t have as much as I would’ve liked”, assuming if the affects didn’t happen until 6 months later, but I don’t think so. Remember, layoffs don’t have an “instant” effect for stuff within at least several months, because it takes longer to see those effects on games and content much later down the line, especially for games not released yet.