My gut feeling belief. Elite was so so spaghetti code and intertwined the things they wanted to do and were working towards either took more time or had to be dropped and other methods to reach said goal researched or just entirely new directions taken.
I don't think there was some big conspiracy or plan to stagnate. I think back door work has been going on figuring stuff out. Things R Complicated.
I dont expect them to come out and say these things wanting to be a successful company so they work on some other games while pushing out some minor what we can do right now till we get over humps phase is over. Who's going to invest or have faith in your company when you say yeah we can't do what we wanted to. Imagine this forum, if they took that approach everyone wanted and actually told the straight truth maybe we wouldnt be here and this new content wouldnt have happened... (Insert you cant handle the truth meme here).
Even if development has ceased as long as the servers are still on the fact we are all here proves the game isnt dead. I mean jesus christ this game is already five or six years old.... The fact development is still going is great in my book and I'm literally excited for anything that comes our way.