The thing I'm more worried about at this point is the "good" old: "Let's release a crappy 1.0 final and let the community fix it."
I completely agree with everything you've said in this answer, specially this last phrase of yours.
I'm also a software developer (back + front) and I believe I've got some XP with it to be able to give an opinion, specially by talking about projects organizations.
1 - It's true and it's normal for IT company to deliver their projects in a delayed time. Never saw one getting done in the right time lol. Still, I'm not protecting them as I've also paid for the game.
2 - I've seen so many good opinions in this forum! I don't participate a lot in it (due to lack of time), but sometimes I get online over here just to check the actual situation of the game, according to the players (Reddit is too much filled with jokes). I've seen that user called Callun saying that he had contact with the company project leaders (or owners of it, I don't know) and they've ignored A LOT of good ideas from the community (by the words from Callun himself). They've chosen just some stuffs that change the stability of the game, which also doesn't take time or work. In other words, they're sparing money.
3 - I agree and the game got a lot of testers (that basically have paid to become their free testers). I'm also always reporting the errors and explaining the situation correctly. The most important part of the projects is to test it. The rest of the bugs can appear due to human error (ofc), but they also need to test themselves the new updates (and they aren't doing it properly).
4 - Yeah a lot of core elements lacking. I REALLY hope that they implement all of them and add some extra ones from opinions of the community.
5 - They communicate ... a little, but they do.
6 - true true
7 - True. This might be due to the situation of the team ... There are divisions inside it (or at least it SHOULD have), which each one is responsible for an area of the development. Some players get irritated that they only see updates of new helmets or stuffs like that, but it means that their 3D designers are working (at least, or just 1 designer by the amount of stuffs that are updated). But yeah, they should hire some senior developers to help to fix some broken stuffs while the others main ones focus on implementing new features, but as the modders are complaining that the tools lack documentation, I'm afraid that the main code of the game can be facing the same situation (never saw it, just guessing by the situation).
8 - true, just what I've said in 7
9 - Yeah true! It could be more, not just battle simulation.
10 - True, normal.
Well, I still didn't get the "feeling" of sandbox in the game, yet. The phrase "the client is always right" is mostly true to many situations, but to the games it's more than 100% true.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope that they deliver a good final product, with all the promised features and some extra ones.
And it's ugly to do this release of a crappy 1.0 version and to let the modders do the rest. C'mon, they've sold a lot of the game already. Focus on delivering it and do a good market research to make a good re-launch of the game when posting the 1.0 (most games don't do it properly).
I like mods but I like when the official main product is being well handled.