Unpopular opinion: Having access to the assets of Half-Life: Alyx and Counter-Strike 2 (both Source 2 games) could have maybe given S&box some help for the launch, until people start to create their own assets, especially for the level designer.
Saying unpopular because Garry already said that he wanted his second sandbox game to not be directly linked to a game made by Valve (a lot of people have the same opinion), but also because Valve might have just said no to Facepunch using their assets which I don’t know for sure
It seems like the Half-Life: Alyx Hammer Editor has stopped working for everyone following the September 14th and 17th, 2026 updates.
Currently, the only way to launch it is to revert to the previous release, dated May 7th, 2022.