I'm afraid I can't agree with your comment about a 'sad state' when the firmware was released. I agree that a lot of parameters were missing when the M2 was first released, but the M2 worked from the beginning and didn't prematurely turn off like some cameras still do after being on the market for over a year! What I call a 'sad state' is if a camera can't be relied on or the parameters can't be set correctly after many months on the market.
You have to remember that the M2 is completely different than any other camera of this type/size. It doesn't use a 'standard' DSP where all the developer needs to do is call a supplied library function in order to set a given parameter. The M2 firmware, which uses linux as it's OS, has had to be written entirely from scratch. Not something most developers can or want to do! Because of this, it took the developer a lot longer to develop the M2 than expected - it appeared almost a year too late. I know this delay was a big disappointment for a lot of people. I'm sure the developer would have liked to add more parameters before releasing the firmware, but the pressure form the groups and forums was too great.
Tom Frank has done an amazing amount of testing for these cameras, literally many thousands of hours in his free time and unpaid. None of the Mobius cameras would ever be as good as they are without all his work. But yes, you are right. Like me, he is not a 'real' dashcam user so his dashcam testing is limited.
The developer has been monitored these forums for a long time. One of the main reasons for choosing the image sensor was exactly because of the low-light requirements so often posted in these forums! Tests showed that the sensor used performs better than the Sony IMX206, used in similar cameras, in low light and way better with 1080p @60fps. The image quality from sub-sampling 16M pixels was not acceptable (artifacts, out of focus). The developer tested the IMX206 with both the NTK96660 and A7 but was not satisfied with the results.
You can be assured that the Mobius developer is trying to squeeze out the best low light video with the hardware available, but I don't think we should expect wonders with today's technology in this price segment.
Oh, all this new stuff about the LEDs being too bright - well, I'm pleased they are so bright. At last I can actually see them in sunlight. Having LEDs that could be dimmed would require more space on the already tiny board. But... a(nother) good idea.
I'm sure there are a lot of people on this forum who would provide feedback and testing in return for a free camera. That's not to say Frank doesn't. Just that some of us use car cams for every journey, and there are knowledgeable people on here who can pinpoint picture issues.
My own issue with the Mobius M2 (if it can be said I have one), is image quality./ Quite frankly, and I don't in any way mean to be rude by saying this, only be very honest and frank with my opinion, no-one buying a camera cares 1 jot about how much effort or development has gone into it or the firmware. All they care about is the price, image quality, reliability and user experience.
You can put a million hours into firmware development and hardware choice. However, if the camera delivers a poor quality picture, no-one is going to care 1 jot about your development.
At the end of the day, the camera is going to be judged mainly on it's image quality and from what I've seen posted and from what others have fed back, atm, it seems to me, in my opinion, that the M2 is worse in many situations than the M1 and terrible in low light. It also falls way behind the arguably the best cameras such as the Yi 4K, SJ pro etc. and in low light, even some much older dash cams.
On a car cam or action cam, quality is king and what people are seeking is Red Epic quality in a small car cam. The latter might not be achievable (yet). However, people are seeking something as close as possible and that inevitably means a razor sharp picture day and night with readable number plates and signs at distance, little to no macro blocking or compression artefacing (low compression / high data rate from a quality codec), a crystal clear lens that renders natural contrast with no misty effect, beautiful natural colours and low to no distortion especially around the edges. Perhaps no car cam has reached all of that yet. However, some are coming much closer than others. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, in my opinion, the M2 has some way to go to get close to the best of the rest in daylight and at night it's one of the poorest. Just my opinion though.