Whilst I fully appreciate that "Rome wasn't built in a day", I also appreciate that after having a taster/trailer of Flarum, potential forum/website owners will quickly be 'sold' and 'addicted' to its quite obvious potential. After all - a carrot has been dangled in front of them, and to use another analogy - the bait has been taken. All quite understandable and natural.
I am not a tech-guru or coder. I am a successful businessman. Blind me with 'jargon' and/or technical reasons why Flarum cannot 'go live' and I will always bow to your better judgement. However, without wishing to 'preach' every journey starts with those first tentative steps...
I think it is a very valid argument when [some] state that a simplified, scaled-down basic version of Flarum that can be implemented 'live' is a more prudent course of action. It can be improved overtime 'on the fly' as and when all the experts have time to further its development.
A BASIC principle of business - be quick and be 'first to market'. It is VERY valid to state that Flarum has excellent projects because of how it looks/feels - but if it were to be superseded by something else, with equal potential, where would it be then? Redundant!
A scaled down version of Flarum would allow owners/users to 'grow' as Flarum grows - in the real world. Focusing on perfection does run the risk of being superseded. Doesn't simple = fewer bugs? Or perhaps I am being far too simplistic....
IMHO I would prefer a stable, basic version and accept that some of the more fancy functionality will have to wait until those devoted to Flarum's development have the time to do more. Sure, if they are studying - that takes precedence over anything else. As others have said - it's all about priorities.
Leave something for too long - it's left for dust. That's the cynical nature of business and I am sure [some] may agree that the same principle applies to Flarum. SOMETHING is better than NOTHING...?
Perhaps someone here closer to the coalface might wish to start a thread outlining core, basic functionality, layout and preferences to focus on, and strip-out a lot of the non-essential 'beautification' aspects for later versions?
Just a thought...
Respect as always.