Sherwood's launch approach does seem curious to me, but since they go through a dealer network instead of internet-direct I guess there are some inevitably different pressures on Sherwood compared to what I'm more used to seeing from Outlaw, OPPO Digital, or other online distribution approaches.
Just my opinion, but I'll go out on a limb and say that Peter's not going to do anything to generate unrealistic expectations on a release date. I'd expect a healthy dose of caution because he knows how easy it is for little things (much less big things) to interfere with a planned roll-out. Better to under-promise (and, barring major intervention by Mr. Murphy, over-deliver) than to over-promise or otherwise feed the anticipation (which will grow suitably intense all by itself, I suspect) and get burned by a last-minute snag that you have to stop and fix.

Every time I think about this, I'm reminded of the current state of affairs at AV123, where they started mentioning the mantra "under-promise and over-deliver" some time last year but continue to repeatedly set and miss deadlines for new products, product fixes, and delivery of pre-purchased products. It has led them to shut down their online forum for the last six months and counting to try to manage the negative reactions.