My Two Credits:
I'm not hung up on Ed like most of this community is, but that's because I've never felt vested in any of Frontier's communications. This speaks to my personal preference, not their strategy (or lack thereof, in some opinions). If I were to air my thoughts on communication...
First, I have found it odd that developers or community managers don't try to host private group events with selected commanders. There is no shame in 'putting on a production' that runs smoothly - that's your job. Trolls will be trolls, but your audience (already invested players and new players alike) will primarily focus on the content of what you're doing rather than what you are not doing.
Where is the multi-crew Thargoid encounter - both as a crew aboard a Corvette or as three medium ships working together in different roles? Show us an 'ideal' fight situation - it's ok that it is staged, players will try to recreate it on their own and content creators will do so as well - amplifying the positive hype of your original 'staged' content. You are developers, it's ok to show the ideal. The same goes for multi-crew mining or trading or piracy.
Second, I don't understand why community managers feel the desire to announce in-game news (like the most recent Interstellar Initiative) rather than just roll it out and then show us participation? I think a large portion of the excitement for Interstellar Initiative was immediately squashed by the forum-only communication, then the total unedited walkthrough of the entire freaking event. You literally posted a sign explaining why I should or should not participate (which led many to shrug and say 'meh', hence low turnout) rather than leave the mystery in place to draw in players.
I get the Gnosis incident is largely considered a goof - but not because of the mystery element of 'what might happen', but rather the active communication that implied nothing would happen. The goal isn't to 'catch players off guard' but to instead provide mysterious opportunities for them to engage in. For a game so centered around exploring the unknown, the community team is notoriously dedicated to leaving nothing mysterious except bug fix and banning reports.
Finally, I get the impression the community team struggles with separating their identity from developers. What I mean is: the community largely sees your team as the developers - you are the end-all-be-all source for the development of this game. That isn't true. You are the communicators for the development of the game. Much of the strife in your typical gaming community comes from this mix-up. Community Team Members shouldn't be commenting in the suggestions or bug reports forum - developers cleared to give straight answers should. Vice versa, the odd developer shouldn't pop into community forums to discuss events - Community Team Members should be the cheerleaders for content creators and major events after they've been discovered. When the two roles mix, players interpret deafening silence about development in the worst ways possible...because you're obviously communicating about other things, which means you're obviously ignoring your community. That isn't true, either - but 'perception is reality'.
I think the community team could greatly reduce the stress of the gaming community if they'd get these roles straight such that the community doesn't spend so much time second-guessing your intentions rather than focusing on the content you are providing. You're not providing a lot of content right now in 'Let's Play' streams - content is not us watching you play the game. Content is us interacting with you. It doesn't even have to be in the game! Host a monthly forum stream where you just talk up lore or events or gameplay tactics. Participate in player-made events like listed in the forum - stream if you must, but recording works, too. Player respect increases with time spent with the community team - not watching it, with it. Your role isn't to build or explain the game to us, it's to communicate and interact with us.
Just my thoughts. A strong community team is hard to build and maintain - community management is a tough and often thankless job day to day. It can be an incredibly powerful tool for supporting your product, too.
As for the community: Hello Games is perhaps the benchmark for 'don't say anything' about game development, and yet look where it is now. A community team is not necessary to the success of a product. Treat it well, or you'll just incentivize the business to cull the 'feature' you constantly lambast. The case could be made that, if Elite really won't see much gain between now and 2020, the forums and community outreach ought be shut down between now and then.
If the features are really worth it, you'll be back anyways. And if they aren't - well, paying for a community team was just another waste of valuable resources.