I see this as a false dichotomy. AM can certainly tell no one anything and still produce gen3 chips, deploy massive Phash, and capture 20% of the global hash, and at the same time produce millions for investors in hardware sales. You cannot simply equate a lack of communication with a lack of results. That would be irrational.
You're forgetting about one thing : human greed. Have you been paying attention on Chinese mining mafia? "Discus Fish" pool for example? Sure they can produce millions ... for themselves. Why they need to produce millions for so called "investors"? They don't need our money anymore. We're redundant here. Maybe even a burden. And they're proving it every day with their non-existing PR.
edit : again ...we're waiting months for 20th January 2014 ... and its 21st now and nobody from company don't have a time to come here and write few words for us. Seems like they don't give a shit about us and yes I am pissed off.
I was thinking about this... a while ago. What is going to keep them paying dividends? I believe firstly since the company is so lean, having a force of people out on the internet talking up their company when their products are released has value. I imagine Asicminer is going to want to keep selling hardware, as managing hardware is an extra cost when there is so much demand for hardware out in the community, and you can sell it for a good price.
Additionally, there are several shareholders who have enough resources and connections that if friedcat did simply stop paying dividends, yet was still mining in some way... I imagine having to "watch his back" all the time would get frustrating. Additionally, the legal status of his operation in china is in flux, I doubt he would want to draw unwanted attention.
Tl;DR I believe friedcat benefits more from staying honest and honoring shares, then he does from keeping profits to himself, I may be wrong.