Gift, you seem to question what the dev's are working on. I think its pretty obvious as the developers try to get to the core of what is wrong they are continually finding more problems. Yoshi seems to be confident these next 3 patches will resolve most of the system limitations right from the most basic transaction level interactions.

When they say that cross world party search and linkshell actions are something that will take time because of system limitations they are talking about these issues at the core of the game. Once the core issues are solved patches and fixes should come in at a much faster pace.

I think we will all be pleasantly surprised with 1.18,1.19, and 1.20. And I fully intend to re-invite all my LS mates who have since taken a break from the game this fall. If SE can deliver what was stated in the last few producer letters by the end of summer (or end of sept.) then I think the game will be in a great shape to start prepping for a firm PS3 launch date.