Hi Km,
Thanks for sharing this.
I agree, Dolibarr migration is pretty nice !
Regarding communication, this is a work in progress. From now on, we'll have systematic annoucement when a major version is released, minor version too, why not. A communication group has been started within the fundation with the goal to better communicate with the community. We already are present on social medias, but this dev mailing-list and the dolistore customers are 2 audiences we poorly communicate with (not to say not at all).
About your concerns around PRs and plugins, I'm sorry you feel that way. PRs are usually correctly integrated and not lost. Plugins are the responsibility of their developers. Personnaly, our plugins are upgraded with the new releases