I thank the OP for their appraisal of the situation and, whilst not being an insider who is bale to verify the pull requests and backlogs, feel that comments on the role of a roadmap ring true.
I have made no secret in this forum of my admiration of the progress of Genode, and the way that project formulates and then executes on its roadmaps is quite instructive. Link to roadmap as well as more nebulous set of future “challenges” (I suppose the kids call them “side quests” these days) is on the About page. These are not massive documents but give an idea of where the project sees itself heading. They do however, along with a release schedule you can set your watch to, give a sense of progress and momentum that we do not see in Haiku. I would like to see similar in Haiku’s own - currently very terse - roadmap.
To follow the motoring metaphor invited by mention of a roadmap, its lack of detail means that many of us casual users - wanting to know if support for this or that feature is forthcoming - can feel in the forums like a child in the backseat asking “are we nearly there yet” every five minutes in a multi-hour car journey.