Yes, the spinning wheel is square, but older designs for actual wagons–wheels that need to be driven on–were shown to be circular. The fact that the spinning wheel isn’t having contact with the ground allows for more artistic liberty.
I mentioned people seeing something as a flaw or limitation because technically, Stonehearth is a crowd-funded game from a new team. Yes, Tom, Tony, and the others have experience working in the gaming market, but currently crowdfunded projects, Steam Greenlight, etc, are oftentimes negatively received due to a large market of ultimately poor-quality games or projects that never fully finish (Spacebase DF-9, Cubeworld, and Towns are a few examples that come to mind where the concept seemed promising but either fell apart or was too flawed to even work at its final state). It’s completely realistic to expect people seeing Stonehearth for the first time see a square wheel and think the team behind the game didn’t know what they were doing.
Actually, mods and the base game aren’t that far apart. Just look at @Froggy’s mod work and how closely it was involved with the game. If I’m not mistaken, the Cook was partially based off of his work (among a few other things). So “mods” aren’t as distant as you may think!
(Neither do I! the message was meant as earnest reassurance etiquette, considering his talk about “failing to meet the style”.)
I’d love it to be like this–sweet and simple. We’re not looking for Tom’s successor!