@fangterror : I like your suggestions, but I'll point out one thing on the request for more dev input, only because I've seen it happen time and again, both on browser games like this one and Flight Rising, and on MMO forums, such as RIFT: Even when Devs specify 'we don't know when this will happen' or 'We're working on it, but have no set date', as soon as they've done that, you get the players who immediately take it to mean 'it will be done RIGHT NOW' no matter how precisely, concisely, or often the disqualifiers are mentioned to head that off. And then the devs get bbq'd by impatient players and it starts a mess, both for the game team and the players that get sucked into the conversation.
Basically, no matter how carefully they handle imparting information on development and upcoming features, once they get on the forums to explain, defend, or tell people that they don't have certain information yet, it tends to explode into a lot of 'why not NOW' and 'but you promised THIS 'x' days/weeks/months ago' and so forth. And then people get ticked off and leave, get inordinately rude, or actually get even more irritated with a situation than if they hadn't been given a timeline, no matter how tentative.
I agree getting to know the team and what they're doing, and little teasers being given out, would be great, but with the general atmosphere of most game forums, I can see why the dev group would hold back on saying much of anything. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and there's less recrimination to wade through if someone can't pull the 'but you SAID' card out in their frustration.