Welcome Treozen,
Yes it is very much real. All that is required is a little patience. Those that post negatively and/or troll about the game are typically just impatient, though I can understand the frustration of waiting and delays, it is inexcusable for those people to lie and spread misinformation.
So there have been a few delays, but what long term project doesn't experience them right? No matter how well you plan, unexpected events will arise and this can result in slower progression and/or having to change direction slightly, both of which has happened.
Some of the original concept ideas had to be changed because either what thought like a good idea at the time became less so as things progressed or perhaps the mechanics and programming behind it became unfeasible due various other aspects so alternate mechanics or ways were needed... this obviously cause minor delays, but nothing huge to be honest.
The other main reason that I can think of off the top of my head for a perceived lack of content, is because development of CoE in particular is occurring slightly differently to other game development projects.
Typically, from what I understand, game development focuses a lot on visual content creation and front end to backend development during the development life cycle. This means that there is usually a lot of visual aspects to look at from the start.
Without trying to go in to details about why this is being done differently and the perceived advantages (and disadvantages) of doing so, let me just say that the development team, as I understand it, believe it is best to develop CoE in a backend to frontend process which means the primary focus has been on the non-visual aspects of the games foundations and then building up from there.
Not to say there is nothing visual to see, there is plenty to show some of the work that has been done over the years, it's just not as abundant as other games and also means it is more difficult to show the progress as much of it cannot be visually represented for the community.
But rest assured, the development has made significant progress which will definitely become more apparent in the near future over the next couple of months.
Once again, welcome to CoE Treozen.
Haji