That is probably because the two of you are referring to completely different things. You are talking about Funcom’s updates where as @CodeMage was talking more about Funcom’s complete and utter lack of communication with the community, and what tiny little communication there is has absolutely no meaning behind it any longer. They gave up on even really attempting to try to care at this point. For example:
Look at this new initiative They came out with back in November. How much “effort” was put into this? How much care and dedication was put into this amazing new initiative they decided to kick off! One post to mention it and then…radio silence. Not a bloody thing in two months.
So sure, when it comes to game mechanics in their Age / Chapter system they may be attempting to tick off the boxes from Joel’s original checklist (though I would say they are falling far short of the visions that Joel had), but they have given up utterly on any pretenses of caring.
But is that the way in which they function? 
After all you can still play Age of Conan and The Secret World, both of which are older than Conan Exiles. So one would simply reason that this is simply not the way that Funcom operates.