If they announced that Wave 9 is coming and said "we can't say what's in it yet" what does that yield? Would that qualify as an "announcement" to make all of those "It's been so long since the release of Wave 8!" whiners happy? I don't think so.
Although it may not make some people happy I'd be fine if they waited to start spoiling anything about Wave 9 until it is a least "on the boat" and for those who are looking an new online pricing this would give stores a boost if they get, and can start selling, the product about the same time the online stores can start taking orders.
They haven't officially done that, to be fair, but Alex Davy has said on 2 podcasts now that Wave 9 is "in the can" and that they are moving ahead with the next products.
They are almost always out 1-2 waves, especially including the large ships and the ace packs. They are just super good at keeping secrets.
Yup yup consider that all of those hidden cards that we can't see in a wave or product announcement are 100% finished before we get that annoucement. There are small corner cases where we have seen text change but it's rare. The NEXT major release is near completion BEFORE we get an announcement for the upcoming one.