A set date is too far out to hammer down exactly. Too much depends on how much free time we can devote to development (we all have day jobs keeping us busy), which is wildly fluctuating. In addition, we don't want to set ourselves up to bust a release date expectation that we should have been smart enough to avoid in the first place. Missed deadlines have killed projects by the boatload and we don't want to be part of that story.
The related
running poll in our forums shows that the overwhelming majority urges us to take our time and do it right rather than rush ahead. As long as this remains the dominant community voice we're happy to proceed as we are.