Unless you are literally considering taking a job at EPIC (which I hear can be fun, challenging, and rewarding!) then it doesn’t matter what you want or how much you ask… it will be done when it’s done. Projects being announced a year out, and then being delayed, is quite normal for software – I’d be more surprised if they were on time. That never happens!
Use 4.26. Try to track down and report or fix as many of those bugs you can. Chances are, bugs fixed in 4.26 will end up also making 5.0 better, as it’s based on the same code code.