As for your questions;
1. Yes, it is a passion project! A disclaimer that I do truly believe that authors should be compensated for their creative works. It is personally important to me to share my story with as many people as possible. I love reading and writing stories, and I love that everyone and anyone can access them. The downside to this, unfortunately, is that real life distracts me from this passion of mine, even when I want to do nothing but focus on it. The best way would be to find a way to support myself financially, but I'm stubborn about not receiving donations or tips despite paying 50-300% additional commercial fees on all the artwork I commission.
I've really, really thought about using a donation platform in the past, donating a majority of the profits to charities I care about, and keeping as much as I need to cover taxes + pay for a nice cup of coffee. The moment I accept money for this game, though, I really worry that it will change it for me!
2. The discord is closed for now, sorry! I want to make it available when I am more active again.
Tumblr is the best way to keep updated. You don't need an account to view posts, and you can always submit questions anonymously! I post infrequently, but that is the first place I write anything. Check in every few months to see if I say something of note there!
Itch.io is the best for actually content updates since I also write update posts here when anything of substance is added. More insignificant ones or insights to the lore or characters are on the blog.
3. I plan it to release the work on a chapter-basis! On a tangential note, I don't plan on making this a series; I want a complete work that I can keep adding updates towards, similar to the development of Stardew Valley post-release. I hate this comparison since I feel unworthy, but that is the model of development I want to strive towards. Updates until completion, and updates even afterwards!
As for your critiques:
1. You're absolutely right! At the initial release, the codex and stats page were the most rushed aspects that I added as placeholders. The story itself was the focal point. Of course I should've known how important those things were to the experience.
Next time, I will aim to implement the wonderful character art into the game, but I need to really consider how to make a pleasing character and worldbuilding codex!!! That will take me forever.
2. I just answered the previous comment in detail about music with your post in mind! There is definitely a lot to consider regarding actually doing it correctly. When I add it, I will be very careful with it.
3. BAH, so on the nose, but maybe I'll add it just for you!!
Thank you so much for your detailed comment, and I hope I answered it all with as much enthusiasm,Pibk! <3