Was Etherfields independently playtested?

I am hugely disappointed by Etherfields.

I am not alone. This review is just the latest that expresses what I feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrI77_q7uYA

Even those who like it more than I would not defend the rulebook, the game board or the grinding that the game requires.

All of these are issues that should have been identified and resolved during independent playtesting.

I have spent a lifetime in IT and Etherfields reminds me of the disaster projects where developers say they have tested and signed off their own code and somebody is stupid enough to believe them.

So I have to ask.

Was Etherfields, in its final form, ever playtested by impartial third parties who had no prior knowledge of how the game works?

If not it is a clear failure of due process.

Kickstarter projects require a bond of trust between those who back projects and those who supply them.

Absence of an objective independent quality control step that judges the final product fit for publication puts this trust at risk which cannot be good for either publishers or gamers.