Those speculations actually seemed to be fact-based, and the whole situation back in 2009 is actually quite interesting.
It seems that there was supposed to be an Elf-based faction released in the second half of 2009. Legomilk posted back in 2008 that there would be fourteen (I think) new sets in 2009, but for some reason we only ended up with three, five if you count the battlepacks. However that still leaves nine sets for a summer wave that might have been cut due to the announcement of a Hobbit movie coming out in 2010.
I assume that Lego decided to pursue the Hobbit license, which caused them to prematurely end FE for obvious reasons. When the movie got pushed back to 2012 they put in Kingdoms as a filler theme to bridge the gap.
Lego does read these boards, and I'm sure that they'll find a way to cater to the needs of FE fans. Speaking of which, that dark forest at the bottom of the NK map looks like a goods source of Goblins, just as the mountains in the top left look good for some trolls....