If we’re being fair to all, this is a problem that the OSMC team has contributed to, through their public communication.
Check out Sam’s comment about “a few days”, back in November: Kodi 18.0 RC1 has been released. When can we expect OSMC to be updated? - #5 by sam_nazarko
Further, ActionA’s later comment in the same thread left open the possibility of delivering the Leia version of OSMC as soon as early February. Even if this was a possibility, what was to be gained by letting that idea persist?
At that time, especially because the thread could be read by anyone with any level of knowledge, the expectations could have been clearly set that (a) the 18.0 release date was irrelevant to the OSMC release date, and (b) it could be more like a few weeks, not just days, after the 18.1 release before the next OSMC could be ready.
I’m happy with OSMC, and grateful to the team for building and supporting a product that is a big part of my life. But I hope that for Kodi 19 the release messaging will improve, and there might also be some visibility into the status of the tasks going into getting to the release.