It often can be, but there’s a ton of games that are legitimately just in development, but are still playable, and early access is a great way for developers to get user feedback, find bugs, and let people play the game without waiting for a full 1.0 release.

It’s kind of a mixed bag, but that’s why most people should be looking at videos/reviews of the current state of any early access title before immediately jumping in and buying it.