the inane Save dialogue that appears when closing a totally unchanged file…

Like a many other apps that I use including Logic, FinalCut, Digital Performer etc., Finale writes a time stamp on opening. The file is changed. Do you want to keep it or not? Clicking No removes that time stamp. Many users like that feature, myself included. Don't expect that to ever go away.

As to the rest of it, I agree that a press release regarding future development would be most welcome. Avid (Sibelius), Yamaha (Dorico) and especially MuseGroup (MuseScore) have been making noises about the future. 

MuseGroup interests me the most. They have a ton of Russian cash over there in Cyprus and are on a hiring bent designed to make their apps actually good while openly admitting that they aren't — yet. When they acquired Hal Leonard last December, they signaled their ultimate goal to dominate the music industry in every way possible—so far, they appear to be doing everything right. One of their many objectives is to have MuseScore become the standard notation app much like Sibelius is for Oxford.

Alfred Publishing is probably Hal Leonard's largest competitor. They appear to be on a different path focusing primarily on cloud services. MakeMusic is part of that family though one would hardly know it.

Why do you like having the time stamp incremented if there are no edits/changes whatsoever? For me, that would be problematic for many things like Word documents, etc. I often search based on when I last actually edited something and if an old finale file is now dated in the present even if I did nothing to it but open it today, that is not helpful. 

But that's a separate issue. The main issue here is whether or not Finale development is essentially over, or minimal at best. The momentum had been with Dorico in terms of features, innovations, etc. Musescore is kinda meh, and I doubt it will massively improve but perhaps over time it might. I do think some folks have soured on Dorico thinking that it was easier to master than it truly is, but that is also very true of Finale, and Dorico at least has frequent updates and is not at all wedded to old code. Finale's codebase needs to be redone. I thought they had somewhat done that a few years ago but clearly that is not the case. 

I’ve been playing with MuseScore Studio (the new name of the MuseScore notation app.) My needs are simple, and the program does a damn nice job of it. I have complaints, of course, and it probably isn’t what the power users among you need, but it certainly bears watching. The hardest part is getting over “but Finale does it this way.” Loads of tutorials, openness regarding development and fixes, and a very helpful and friendly forum. And you absolutely can’t beat the price.

Why do you like having the time stamp incremented if there are no edits/changes whatsoever?

I like knowing when I last looked at a file and don't need another reason. You always have the option of clicking No when it asks to Save and then there will be no updated time stamp. I named three other apps that do the exact same thing including two from Apple and got over it being concerned a couple decades ago once I knew the reason.

I’ve been playing with MuseScore Studio (the new name of the MuseScore notation app.) … hardest part is getting over “but Finale does it this way.”

Ha! I didn't notice the name change till I opened it just now. My biggest issues are that the interface is cumbersome for me to use—about on par with Notion—plus that dreadful Edwin font they're so proud of. It is no longer horrible, a huge improvement, IMO.

I've been doing some work for publishers cleaning up MS scores so that they match house styles and step one is to export/import into Finale via MusicXML. Why they find it more effective to have me do this instead of in-house is above my pay grade but I am not complaining.

That Music Studio is not yet the de facto app for Hal Leonard is telling. I expect that version 5 will be and, when that happens, it will be good enough that everyone else will need to play catch up.