Dan,
thank you for being transparent about these things.
IME, people tend to be way more understanding and lenient when presented with honest and frequent communication about stuff that goes wrong.
If you hold back on information out of fear it won't look good, or because you're waiting on set dates or for whatever other reason, the lack of communication is often perceived as a lack of action, lack of interest, or both. Of course that is not necessarily true (and in fact it wasn't in this case), but that's what silence tends to read as.
On the other hand, frequent communication—even just to say there have been no new developments and you're waiting on feedback/action/whatever—conveys the message that you are on top of it, and that you care.
Again, silence doesn't mean you don't care or aren't doing the needful. It's about perception. I can totally get behind all that happened, and I have no qualms waiting for my backer rewards—but boy does it make it better to know the reason for the wait