True. And while I got my info from Larian at the weekend, it's possible that all the confusion has changed plans, so I'll stop assuming I any longer have any sort of inside scoop. For all we know Larian have been desperately scrambling to see if they can release on 31 July after all and that's the cause of the delay in the update

Wait and see is good advice.
Let's just say, that sounds definitely a reasonable thing for them to do.
They HAD to have noticed all the confusion and even anger. They don't have to make it 31st, but they have to have internal talks about if or if not and then communicate what's going on.
That's nothing some poor social media person can say over a weekend and since the update on the matter is still not given, it seems like a definitive "we're looking into it, see if it's possible without crunch and tell you when we know".
And while I'd rather have BG3 yesterday, if on the other hand developers have to do crunch to make it happen on the 31st, I'll gladly take the 3rd.