Many of the predictions were heavily influenced on signals and predictions from David Irvine himself, so no, even they can’t. Complex IT projects are simply extremely unpredictable, and people here are excited about this project so wishful thinking plays a role for sure.
My current prediction would be a January/February SafeCoin release, but I should probably add at least 3 months to that to account for surprises.
Edit: I’m tempted to think “it’s different this time” because of Rust and the new workflow, but the fundamental nature of software development is still the same. So yeah, I think we should still take into account unforeseeable delays.
Edit2: Delays aren’t necessarily bad though. There have been multiple delays in SAFE’s development in the past years due to new ideas that significantly improved the base concept.