I posit that the original roadmap was not abandoned, it was just a very small map, and has been mostly delivered.

Let's dial the time machine back to January 2021. Valheim was just about to explode. 5 devs had been feverishly toiling for nearly 4 years to get their vision to market. They had a game engine and procedural world generator. They had some assets like mobs and trees. They had enough to take it public, and they had things they were working on.

The things there were working on were still half baked. Partly done, to whatever degree, but not ready for the launch, so they were just added to the roadmap.

Things like decent roofs and decorative build pieces. They all relied on tar, but the tar pits and decorative build pieces were not done yet. Parts were, I presume. But the entire 'ecosystem' of tar pits and fancy build pieces were not done, so they were called 'Hearth and Home' and stuck on the road map for their as yet non-existent player base. Notice, in the original road map, under 'Odin wills it' are tar pits.

At the same time, they had this idea for a group of wolf headed cultists, up in the ice caves in the mountains. But the entire ecosystem was not yet done, so it was added to the road map as 'Cult of the Wolf'.

The ocean biome was kind of sparse. Still is. Their ocean biome roadmap update is abandoned in favor of the Mistlands. Why?

If I were a betting man it's because Mistlands was further along in development when they were still hungry.

Yes, they have released a couple of updates to the game in 14 months, but it smells like stuff they already had cooking.

4 years to make a game engine AND 5 biomes.... now 14 months without a new biome, and just some 'late homework' level updates.

Call me cynical, but the math says they are not working as hard now as they used to when they were still hungry.

Not blaming them. If I was suddenly a millionaire I'd quit my day job too.

But I think it is a lie to say the road map has been abandoned to focus on bug fixes and mistlands. The road map was just really small, and has now been delivered under the guise of squeezing out the last few sales while work has (compared to pre-launch progress) gotten stuck in a tar pit, so to speak.

Hoping for more build pieces? Temper your expectations.
Hoping for more mob types per biome? Temper your expectations.
Hoping to adventure in the frozen north, or the Firelands? Temper your expectations.

Modders have done all the heavy lifting since release. If the devs really want to serve their player base they will just step back and admit they are on a beach somewhere and hand the code off to modders to complete the game and turn it into what we all see the potential for.

I will, however temper my expectation that will ever happen.