Where did the Lab come from?

I don't mean where or when in game, I mean where from within Epic.

Since the state of development just over a year ago, the atmosphere surrounding the game and it's potential future has been down right miserable. According to Epic, the game was finished and content could slow down. To the community, it felt like Epic was trying as hard as they could to smother the game with a pillow. Miraculously, the game's community somehow survived (and may have potentially grown if pack sales are anything to go by). During this year long period, all the game got was recycled content, some small quests, and venture zones with re-used biomes and unique modifiers that were either barely noticeable or downright infuriating to play with. The game was essentially put on auto-pilot with a few decent (but long over-due) QOL changes. Then suddenly out of nowhere, aside from announcement a month or so prior, the lab is released. Sure it's a bit buggy, but just admiring all the details in the dungeon really shows you that whoever designed this put a lot of love and care into this. There is so much attention detail, so many things which, surprisingly, are not just recycled assets from BR. Not only that, but the game got new music for the first time in over a year. Not just for the lab, but for every previous dungeon as well. Now it could've been this has been worked on for years on the back-burner and they only now decide to release it, but it's still high quality none the less. However, it makes me wonder. Why after a year of basically nothing, we get this? Were a small group of people just bored one day?

Either way, I just wanted to say thank you to whoever made the Lab. Thank you for giving me that spark of joy I used to feel in STW when I was discovering/ exploring something new for the first time.