That's probably just you. My updates are consistent in length, with v0.41 being pretty average in that regard (13,800 words).
That being said, the feel of an update gets influenced by a bunch of things, such as the amount of different scenes and their variety, as well as how heavy the topics discussed are, and even the length of the individual lines of dialogue.
Also - and this is unfortunate, but it's still content that needs to be produced and thus takes time - anything that happens behind the scenes (text conversations that MC has with the girls but which don't actually show in game until the next time their conversation gets brought up) as well as hidden content might be there but you may not actually notice it. Hidden content would, for example, be scenes that you only get to see when you've made a specific decision in the past. Like most Mariko lewd content.
In the case of v0.41 specifically, however, I'm pretty sure that the main reason for its feeling short is the rather lengthy scene with Mana and Hina in the park. It's so far the longest scene in the game and takes up almost half of the update, thus making it feel like the update has "less" content than usual (quantity of scenes vs. time spent on the update). In reality, you've probably spent about the same amount of time on the update.