I am tempted to pre-order as I have for a number of years, but this is a fair point. Release date is Nov. 8th, which means the beta drops (if they hold to the pattern of dropping it around two weeks before release) on or around Oct. 25th, which is just a few days out from being a month away. Aside from a few bits and pieces on new licenses we don't know anything about new features or changes to old mechanics, etc.. This is quite different from other game releases where there is often months of media related to gameplay and features. As an example, I was just watching a lengthy gameplay stream from Paradox showing off Victoria III, which releases Oct. 25th, and there has been a ton of media content coming out for it for a while now. I know people trust SI, but it is rather outside the norm.