I'm going to assume that it's a massive increase in server traffic due to new/returning players seeing all the articles about DW2 and Beyond Ch 4, coming back in a large wave and overloading things. Which is a great reason for servers to struggle as it means the game is thriving.
Not to mention: Major update released, all kinds of new stuff happening, things inevitably break in some way. For example: persistant deep core mining. If a player(1 dude) blows up a roid, all of a sudden, that single exploded roid has to exist for
EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE. Lots of new communication involved with making that kind of persistence work in a system that wasn't explicitly designed for it.
They're aware of the problems and have already issued a patch so soon after returning to work from the holidays.
Hang in there, things will get worked out and you'll be back to complaining about space legs in no time
