Sometimes people would like just a ballpark. Is this going to be looked at this year? At all? Is it on roadmap? Should I wait a week or just carry on with my ow

Sometimes people would like just a ballpark. Is this going to be looked at this year? At all? Is it on roadmap? Should I wait a week or just carry on with my own patch, work around it, or go with an alternative solution? A ballpark response may at least add enough clarity for people to know how to proceed in the meantime. "I'll look into it real soon now" out of some unwarranted sense of duty and then a year of radio silence is not helpful. "ETA" sure is a wrong term. (You're not my manager! Argh!!!) However, work enough in a corporate setting, and those words firmly suck into you and it takes a time to unlearn them. ETA, touch base, circle back to (or worse, faux military vocabulary in a company that has jack to do with military, my pet peeve). Unless they go out of their way to be pushy, you may as well not assume ill intent where there's only a professional deformation.