Isn't it rather up to our community to connect with the reality? TMO is not a prominent place where people look for information, so why should they waste resources on establishing an official communication channel with TMO? You cannot reach many people this way.

For official communication, Jolla has always chosen to do it via events with press coverage, such as Slush, MWC, or their own press conference. You reach more people that way, instead of talking to a bunch of nerds on TMO. This is how Jolla got mentioned on Wall Street Journal, BBC, Engadget, various computer magazines, etc. Not by posting on a former Nokia forum, where the only people are N770, N8x0, N900 or N9 users; devices most people never even heard of.

Then there's mostly developer-related inofficial communication. If you want to get in touch with the developers, join the Sailfish or Mer mailing lists, or the Mer and Nemo IRC channels. This is where you get help with developing apps. I don't really see a lack of communication.

We already know...

* that the device will be released by the end of 2013
* how much it will cost
* where and how to preorder
* that it will feature some thing like "replaceable back covers on steroids"
* how the first device will look like (given that is will look similar to the prototype), including some hardware specs like screen size and dual core processor
* how to develop for Sailfish with the SDK
* that Sailfish Silica is under the BSD license (look at the SDK, or take this QML code and make it run on Nemo)
* that Sailfish is a UI on top of Nemo (if you look closely at the SDK)
* how Sailfish looks and feels as we can try it for ourselves in the SDK
* that Sailfish will run Qt5 apps (look at the presentations from the Qt Developer Day in China)
* the opensource side of Sailfish is called Nemo (just look at the Mer and Nemo change logs; lots of Jolla people working there together with the community)
* that Nemo runs fine on the N9(50) except for some hardware where Nokia did not and maybe is not allowed (since they don't own it) to release driver code
* that there will be an app store (look at the videos from the press conference)
* that the phone will be able to run Android apps via Myriad Alien Dalvik (one video of the press conference shows it in action)

... and a lot more I forgot here.

Did Nokia, or Google, or Apple, or Microsoft ever release so much information before launching a device or OS? Or were you ever able to get in touch with the developers directly on IRC or mailing lists with these companies?

Probably it's not a lack of communication (because there is no lack IMHO), but you're just pissed that Jolla doesn't come here and says, look, here's a complete image for your N9, so you don't have to buy our device.

Instead they want to sell you their own hardware with Sailfish because they somehow need to be profitable as a company, and they have to keep back some information because they are doing business in the mobile phone war zone, where one false step could be the end.