Pulseaudio has reached a stage that is comparable to when Duke Nukem Forever got the lifetime achievement award for vaporware. Everybody knew the situation sucked, but everyone is tired of repeating what has already been said a million times.
Judging from the history of Duke Pulseaudio will be in the spotlight again. My guess is that a good working Pulseaudio (for everybody) it will always be always right around the corner just before the thing is dropped and something better/simpler/more elegant comes along.