is it really the case that literally every single thing that will be in the next patch took four weeks to do?
Probably not, but some may depend on things that will take the 4 weeks. For those that don't, if they diverted resources into releasing a couple smaller updates, that would likely further delay the large update.
Also, while some people have no problem replaying the alpha with only minor changes, significant additions are more likely to get more people playing. That should at least partly compensate for less feedback in the interim (possibly even more than compensate).
