UO moved to Mythic after KR was launched in June 2007. SA was originally KR-only, thus logic dictates that SA was nearing completion as an expansion at that time. (again, KR only)
Honestly, that does beg the question of what have they been doing for two years? Yes the move across the country seriously impacted development and held things back. "Redoing" SA content/land/art for 2D and remaking the Enhanced Client took some time.. But still.. Two years?
The OSI team had far better communication as a team then the current one does. They gave us a list of what they were working on, sans exploits, and kept us relatively updated. Yes, the dreaded "Coming Soon" was coined during this period - and still remains a Dev Team cop out.
Communication now seems to only come in the form of repetitive FoFs, the return of the UOHoC, and the odd post here on Stratics by two or three people. Players have brought up valid issues with the game and both clients, and have received little to no (usually no) response or acknowledgement. A simple "yeah, we know this is an issue - working on it!" would placate people.
The posts by the producer don't even pin anything down, or have any real information. Even though he mentioned vet rewards and such, they missed the 12th Anniversary - just like the 11th - just like the 10th... Not even a simple post on the Herald. That smacks of apathy.
Losing the art assets is a completely different can of worms, and is unforgivable by a corporate entity. How they managed that still boggles the mind.