This will bring in a FLOOD of new money for the developer. I had a really hard time enjoying the game when I bought it about a year and a half ago, and the rather lame graphics was the biggest letdown. The non-artist solo developer luckily realized the obvious solution to this issue (hire 1 or more actual artists), and now I really look forward to playing this some more. It's a cool game, and should be a lot more enjoyable to me, partially because I'm a game artist myself.
I'm the sure this update has cost the developer well under a million dollars, and will result in several million dollars or more income, and a nice reputation boost for the game and the developer overall. Good for them!
In the mid 70s Eric Idle (from Monty Python) had a Beatles parody band called The Rutles, and created a television mockumentary in 1978 called 'All You Need is Cash', and this was probably a pretty big influence on Spinal Tap in the early 80s.