Of course with a project like this the backbone of it is the programming department. The last year-or-so has been spent essentially rewriting the engine from the ground up. A change like this is huge but unfortunately invisible. Fans only see the outside of the black box and can't appreciate the changes going on in the inside of it. Sure it's frustrating and yes expect a release later rather than sooner. But that IS a release folks.
Hobbes; Nice site. Sorry I just found out about it now. Since it's hosted by XcomUFO you are entitled to your own forum for it and modship of it at XcomUFO; go have a look.
I'd agree that it refers to the alien gardens et al. Since that doesn't directly lead to UFO ship thrust and so on, I guess they left it out of the game. 100 bucks per unit if I recall correctly.