I suspect that "going it alone" (as opposed to being beholden to other manufacturing partners that left them in the lurch -- like Inkel) as well as the level of difficulty of integrating all the features AND the OSD and having a bit of a "moving target" with regards to the competition have all factored into the delays with the 978.

Those same factors are also why I suspect other smaller manufacturers are so reluctant to enter this market space. It is a heckuva lot easier to offer some "sonically astonishing" new DAC, tube based two channel device or even things like speakers, power amps and black box "problem solvers" than it is to make a "clean sheet of paper" product that has to meet a high bar for simplifying what is often a complicated process of storing multiple room correction measurements for current advanced room correction.
The possibility certainly exists that Outlaw and its chosen manufacturing partner are not up to the task. I prefer to speculate on the more optimistic possibility that tweaks to the UI and/or similar adjustments to a mostly solid beta test that would elevate the upcoming product / make it as polished as any of the other offerings from Outlaw...