I think Catalyst (and most gaming companies, truth be told) would benefit hugely from having a dedicated community manager. Not someone whose doing it on the side on his or her free time to help (bless them for trying). Managing communities is a job. Communicating on the various channels -- forums, tumblr, facebook, twitter, whatever -- and making sure the information reaches people is a job. Too often, game companies believe it's something easy that can be done on top of everything else, but it's not.
It's even worse with tabletop companies such as Catalyst, because actual employees are only a handful and freelancers can't really talk for the company and often don't know everything that's going on. We saw it repeatedly here: Critias, Bull and the others are doing their best, but what fans really expect, what they're really waiting for, is some official answer from Jason or Randall, people who are actually speaking for Catalyst. Without official answers from Catalyst, it feels like the company doesn't care.
I work in the video game industry, and I too have been in the position of being the lone designer/writer who tries to answer questions and keep people informed while trying to make a game at the same time, and in my experience, it just doesn't work. Comes a time where you just don't have time or energy for it anymore, and discussing on forums is exhausting and sometimes disheartening, especially if you're emotionally invested in what you're discussing with fans/customers.
Also, let's face it, we designers/writers are rarely very good at this communication thing, and we can make things worse as a result.
So sure, hiring a competent community manager has a cost, and on the surface no direct benefit. But that doesn't mean such benefits don't exist. In fact, they are worth every penny in my experience. With a CM, fans are informed and know their opinions are read. Someone from the company can address their concerns and discuss their ideas without it being automatically read as "the actual designer answered my post so now it's like he made a blood promise to change everything". And designers and writers can focus their energy on designing and writing without feeling it's their duty to answer fans on forums because no one else does. Everbody's mood improves. Most of the time, people just want to be properly informed, and to know their feedback has been heard. When this basic communication fails, things can become toxic.
tl;dr: Catalyst, please hire a community manager ASAP.
