For all the shit he (deservedly) got back then, I think he's absolutely allowed to now go "Hey, we fixed all of that." I think NMS is probably the poster child for "most improved later on", even taking that crown away from X games.
It's also a stellar example of "Don't be Peter Molyneux and just lie for the sake of sounding interesting", as that shit is going to come back to bite you in the ass.
Be honest and upfront about your game. It's hard to shake a negative stigma, and it's going to follow you for years. Making bald-faced lies about your game right before release is probably the dumbest thing you can do as a dev.
Even so, good on them for fixing it to the point where it now actually looks like a really fun game.