Hello,
Just for curiosity, I have looked at shows who are still 'In Development' and haven't been updated for years. They are numerous ! Look at this list, just the first few pages are filled with them.
A show that hadn't any updates in 4-5 years is clearly not happening anytime soon (if ever).
In the interest of keeping accurate datas, shouldn't there be a time limitation for updates, before putting this kind of projects up for deletion ?
Edit :
A another to go would be to create a different status 'Project' to be set if no complete season have been officially put in production (before 'In Development').