My guess is that the Vita was a project that not everyone approved of within Sony, hence the complete drop of support from Management. Many people in Sony probably felt it was not the right way forward for a portable system.
You could be 100% right, as there seems to be a divide somewhere within the company, as the proper support just hasn't been as strong as it should be.
A few years ago, I read a statement from one of the higher ups within Sony, that said when the PS3 came along, they made a conscience decision to pretty much move all their PSP support over to that system, and that's why the well went dry(piracy was the standard excuse they used for poor sales, but not true).
I really thought the Vita was going to be way different, but it has been worse than the PSP. At least the PSP started strong, and had a very good 2-3 years. I'm hopeful with the price drop, that it can have a better late run, as it does appear that interest and sales are up. If Sony has an actual plan, it would appear to be "slow and steady wins the race", but this remains to be seen.
I actually used the remote play feature recently and it was damn cool. Handhelds are my systems of choice and within the last 6 months, I've found myself using my consoles less and less. It's just way to much effort to get in front of the TV and not have to deal with other things while I'm trying to play. If I can play PSN and full PS4 retail games on the Vita, it may become my system of choice very soon.
Chris