"Some people close to him"....are you accusing Braben of manipulating the market so that his pals get stock ownership ahead of other participants???
No-one suggested the company wasn't doing ok financially. What I said was the reality is commercial drivers will dictate development and production schedules above loyalty to one (or more) product(s). That's what happens in any publicly owned firm. The directors are accountable to shareholders. ED will be allocated resource as long as it is the most commercially appropriate decision. If not, shareholders will likely challenge the directors.
And so far FD has made most commercially appropriate decisions which include financing of Beyond and next Elite "phase".
I really fail to understand what is this with internet theory about evil shareholders. There are thousands of companies in the world where company leadership is left to do everything they want, because they make SOUND decisions.
Having no shareholders and no responsibility? Yeah, that worked for *cough* that another space game *cough*.