Should SE be a little more transparent?

[Betelgeuzah]

Okay, let's be honest. Companies and Combat probably aren't going to be anything revolutionary, the first being nothing more than quests, and the second involving some rendition of auto-attack. So it's likely that whatever they intend for either system is pretty achievable anyway.

Achievable in few months? This is a core game design change, what is likely is that their concepts are way off the actual implementation of said systems. It doesn't even have to be that large of a change for them to be working 24/7 in their office for months to meet the deadline. These games are developed for years, they have 6 months at best.

And shouldn't they give us some kind of direction, however vague, so that we have room for discussion, since that is what this forum is all about?

If they want us to discuss something, they will tell us enough to be able to discuss it. They don't want feedback on everything, only select things.

It's their duty to make the core feature work. If they can't do that, we are not here to fix their shortcomings. Then they will fail, and they deserve to fail. We can pinpoint the issues we see within the system they present to us, but we are not here to make the system for them.

Also, shouldn't we know vaguely about where the game is heading so we can either stop altogether or, to the contrary, have renewed faith?

It's up to them, and up to us. They can tell us more, or they can simply not tell us anything. You can stop, or you can keep coming back. I don't think you are going to leave regardless of whether they tell us more or not, so as far as you're concerned they are doing fine.