The basic excuse for the delay is that it's supposed to be epic.
Quite a few months ago, Lanzer did say they planned to have it out before the end of the year -- I might be misremembering, though. Now, Lanzer is either a) somewhat out of the loop or b) a master of misdirection, but if you reread his posts... pretty much everything he says does come true eventually.
I hope the return of proper quests does come faster than "eventually", especially the backwings one. zOMG does the quest system quite well, it needs to be brought back to the rest of the site.
Oh, our previous non-sponsor quests:
1) Moira's newbie quest (2 different versions)
2) Edmund's quest for black orchids (Halloween 2K7)
3) The Von Helson twins' quest for... something, I don't remember, but you ended up with a blood drop brooch at the end (also Halloween 2K7)
4) Liam's quest for love (last year some time? may still be active. You get a picture with him with a fish in his mouth at the end.)
5) all the zOMG quests (yes,
they count)