This is absolutely true, all of what You said. But - if You say A, You must say B. Maybe giving an ETA was a mistake, but if You did that, You are obliged to update the project status, especially if there are some, expected or not, difficulties. IF You respect Your customers...
I literally can't imagine the situation, that Max can't find 5 minutes to update project status. Alpha started about year ago, this thread - a month ago. During this time there were so many 5-minute periods, one of them for sure could be used up to send an information to community.