You can re-phrase my main question as: why is there enough interest in doing these minor improvements when there is apparently little interest in fixing the major and long-lasting deficiencies?
They have no control over crappy WiFi NIC cards that delay connections or how Apple displays captive portals.
Why are people working on improvements to wi-fi at all, when there are people around the world dying of hunger?
If you can answer that, I think you'll be able to answer your own question.