(I believe
@Danny_zoo can back that up, as well as the fact that they have ongoing relationships with a few zoos such as San Diego), so the question is why hasn't it translated well into the actual game? What corners did they cut, and what concepts did they throw in the "too hard basket"?
They definitely did their research, and it is likely that they will continue to do so. In my opinion (I have no first hand knowledge of this) it is definitely not a lack of understanding what zoos are and are not, or what is needed to please a segment of the players of this game. It is likely that it all comes down to game performance, and how a lot of what they might have wanted to include in the game could severely impact that. It is interesting to me, because, this is the only area of the game that I do not fully understand, since I have no background in it, yet it seems to be the one affecting all or most of the decisions being made. As an example, added animal behaviors, new gameplay, complexity of gameplay, quantity of animals, etc, wouldn't that impact the game performance at the end? I'm not saying it can not be done, or that they should not keep on trying, for all we know, it is already a done deal, and just a matter of time before those features join the game, or not. My point is that they have always being aware, or are definitely aware by now.
As far as the lack of communication, I have already included my thoughts on that, as much I'm all for constant communication, blogs, etc, we might have to get used to the idea, that it might never exist again for this game. The advertisement for the game, is already there in social media for Frontier, there are thousands of free advertisement videos, already pushing the game, so why would someone that does not truly care mush about zoos, etc, put in the extra work? To please who exactly? A few of us in here? I think some of the artists/devs behind the actual game are very passionate about it, the quality and devotion of their works speaks for itself. There are others, possibly the ones in charge that might not necessarily care beyond profit, and that is understandable. Meaning they will only go into so much detail, before they move on. A lot of the community managers have social media accounts, and it is amazing in this age of technology what can be deducted by looking at someone's interests, and I can say that I have yet to see anyone truly interested in zoos before this game was released, even now, they just seem to go along with it and nothing else. That would explain a lot of your lack of communication and enthusiasm. Their community manager exited during the height of the Pandemic, and I'm not saying that she cared more than anyone else, but she surely seem to be very active, outspoken and enthusiastic about the game, so add that to the recent silence.
In reference to the game being heavily promoted by YouTube players who might not truly understand what this zoo game is currently missing, I think that is a valid point. At the same time, they are promoting the game, and bringing in thousands of new players. I have said this many times, and I hope I do not offend or rub anyone the wrong way, no one sits there and watches a video about game management or behind the scenes zoo simulation, people want to see amazing creations, that can inspired them to built their own parks. The irony here for me, is that the inspiration should be coming from the millions of real life videos of zoos and related content. For me this is the same concept of comparing this game to the zoo tycoon games, when everyone should be comparing this game to real life zoos, not an extremely unrealistic fantasy game that its only true accomplishment in my opinion was coming first.