People "knowing what's going on" appears to have been the cause of as many forum problems as "not knowing what's going on".
Quite the opposite... The only case of 'knowing causing problems' is when the knowledge comes as a bombshell.
You will have your nay'sayers either way, the question is who do you want to please? Those anticipating your future, or those who don't really care?
This topic is brought up time and time again, and it's funny that there are always those who say "but you damn him if he does, and you damn him if he doesn't", which will always be the case, I am sorry but there is no happy medium. Some users will just always be unhappy regardless, but does that mean you 'punish' your loyal/good customers? Do you keep them in the dark, do you let them move on and forget about you just because your afraid of a small amount of ridicule from the peanut-gallery/downtrodden over an internet forum?
Perhaps when the user base is almost gone will BRL wise up and realize that to keep them happy, all they have to do is keep them in the loop.