I admit it is tough to gauge what progress is actually happening when it seems like at least once a year there is some major shift in tech, methodology, goals, plans, etc.
I am not saying that in an effort to deride the studio - I understand that a lot of this is simply how things progress.
However, it would be nice if we got some context for the overall impact on development, so we avoid the appearance of "two steps forward, three steps back".
I consider myself fairly well-informed regarding what SBS has shared over the years. Despite that, if someone were to ask me where CoE is in development (which they have), my honest answer is "no idea".
Over time, they have shared what testing phase is supposed to include what features, where they supposedly are with those features, what is needed to enter a certain phase, etc.
Yet, despite that, it seems like every time they night be getting close to hitting previously mentioned milestones, suddenly they are taking a new approach, shifting the goal posts, or revamping their process.
This makes it VERY difficult to actually be aware of what the heck is going on, and how they are making actual forward progress.
I hope the upcoming StoE will shed some light, but even then I worry it will be more of the same, where they give a status update, and then six months later, re-invent the wheel again.
tl;dr
I have no idea what is actually going on, where they are in the overall dev timeline, what is done and what isn't, etc.
In other words, I feel like I know less about CoEs development than I did 2 years ago.
Hopefully, that changes soon.