Where and who would they have shown it to? This will be announced and released in <6 month window. That's what Todd wants.
He already said if the publishers allowed him he'd announce it the week before release. If you're not expecting this to release until 2022 then I wouldn't expect gameplay until 2022. fr I'm assuming they forced him to announce this and ES6 because it was going to be such a long wait. Or they were tired of the endless questions.