Then the question becomes what are the phases we're speaking about if phase 1 is "As close to perfection as reasonably possible"? Is there room for improvement if melee is found lacking or are we limited only to changing damage and speed variables? What is lacking from phase 1 that will find its way into phase whatever? How many phases are there? There's a lot of guesswork being done here because there's zero information flowing to the community in that regard. Newcomers are adamant about having the game now, because there are no goal posts to speak of. As far as we're concerned, there's unreleased, and released. If there's more in between, that needs to be communicated, as that'd cut down on the number of threads politely asking that it be released right now or suffer the death of your first born son.
In short, just set goals in the form of phases, communicate what each phase entails, and we'll have a better picture of where we are as far as completion level. Personally, I don't find "EVERYTHING HAS TO BE PERFECT" as a reasonable first goal, but thats just me.