It's a pity but yes, we must wait and see. The balance there is that any implementation would take at least as long as it will take to see some of these changes, and would perhaps become obsolete or in need of so much update that it'd be better to wait.
However I do think we could prototype some of these ideas before that time, perhaps using a BitShares asset or just a simple DB or on chain version of that by adding comments to a particular post, etc. It wouldn't have real assets but the ideas could be tested.
There's also the SMT test net, though it looks complicated and unfinished.