Well....when did the last patch come out for Gal Civ 2? Not very long ago and there is no indication that it will never be patched again. My guess is the updates will stop when the game is the best it can possibly be. Gal Civ 2 is why I love Stardock and have faith this game will end up in a similar state of near perfection.

Paid add-ons bring change and great big updates, and are part of the overall game. I don't think Stardock will ever stop and say well, you didn't buy the expansion so don't blame us if your game is broken. So, I guess updates continue, like I said, until the game is fixed and tweaked to a point they are proud of. This is the advantage Stardock has over...say Obsidian, who wants to update Alpha Protocol but can't because Sega isn't sure it's a sound business decision at this point. Now, I know you are asking for balancing, those basically count as bugs, I see no great difference between the two.