What is early access? My goal is to get on Steam, but my game won't be ready for a few months. As long as I get it done by the end of the year, I'll be happy. But when I hear people talking about Steam and not making anything from it, it makes me nervous. I'm not looking to get rich right away, but it has to be worthwhile at least.
In brief, EA are often unfinished games that rely on pre-purchasers to support its continuing development. A bonus for supporting the game during development is player feedback in theory helps make for a better finished game. The problem is many EA games in the past don't ever get finished so its received a bad reputation. Many EA titles are also broken, full of bugs and are unplayable or with very little content so gamers auto-skip over any EA games.
TNP is definitely not like most EA games, its very polished with a good amount of content. If its sold as a finished game right now, it will do well and justify its price tag.