I still believe that the reason they are so quiet on the LS front is that they are going to be replaced with Player Companies when the Public Companies system is added. I think LS's were never meant to be in the game but as the Company system was not ready then they needed to knock something together fast and this is what we have.

I believe Player Companies where supposed to be so much more than just a LS with Housing, Transport your own mission structure and so on. I'm sure they said at some point during all this that you would be able to own Boats and Airships. So you can see why they may be dragging their heals with this issue, is it excusable no but if they can pull off Player Companies like they originally set out in the June update or whenever then all this will be water under the bridge very quickly.