...(Even though I am (apparently) no longer "on" the Tau project.)...
What is the status with him?
his status is up to him. he's welcome to collaborate on tau as much as he wants, and was always so.
Well, the very short form explanation is that nobody on the project except Ohad believes either that there is any problem with the originally planned design, or that his new plan is even suitable to construct a "useful" tau. During discussion of our concerns, Ohad "went off" on the most active developer (stoopkid) and kicked him off of the project. Every other member of the "team" (including myself) then basically stopped development and effectively left the project. This means that Ohad has now effectively lost his second team entirely, and is once again on his project alone.
To my knowledge, in the time (months) since, no new development has occurred.
I still keep my commitment to Ohad to attempt to verify any implementation which he brings forward.
I'm also still happy to explain the original design premise to anyone who would like to know about it.
I trust Ohad completely, if he says that after deep investigation he found that the old design will not serve the project's purposes as planned or to the fullest, and that there is a preferable design to use, I fully back him up on this. I get the feeling that there is an ego issue here to some extent. I am certain that there was no real reason for Ohad to switch to a new logic if he did not truly believe that it is the right way to go. I am also certain that the project will move forward with you or without you. I know that some people see you as an expert and for this reason it will be positive if you do decide to continue cooperation with the project in the future. Of course, this is mainly up to you.