The issues this game has all stem back to the inexperience or failure to learn from past MMO disasters by the Dev team. This looks like a dozen or so MMO launches where the team doesn't know what the fuck they are doing, the Company is green as shit, the QA process is either non-existent or invisible inside of the org. Doesn't start out too bad, people are having fun but there are some issues, then as more issues are discovered the Dev team starts jerking the wheel, veering all over the road rather than making small adjustments. Then big things start to happen and the Team panicks and start to take drastic measures, stops communicating, etc. This hasn't been a straight line but its like watching a drunk trying to sober up on the way to the door after falling down the stairs on the way out.
All of the code/exploit bullshit, of which there is a ton, pales in comparison to how fucked up AGS/the New World team is at managing the game itself. If this were anyone else, it would might kill the company outright ; because they have Bezos bucks, hopefully someone will come in and do an MPR/AAR and a real 360 at all levels after the next quarterly review or whenever they have to report to senior mgmt about the results here.