What crowd funding? It's been a released game for years backed by macro transactions from the store

Not really sure what's so controversial about this. CIG argued in court the game is released and it hasn't been crowd funded since they left Kickstarter. People just pay to get ships to fly or for outfits and weapons or in some cases, pre-order ships.

Yeah but the second time it wasn't even finished yet. They were still under construction.

A video game is not a reality. It's a past time. Watching a television show, reading a book or making some art is also not an alternate reality. You're still in the same place.

I think it's both. Or rather, their only competence is scamming people with false advertising.