Of course you can ask! The past couple days I’ve been fighting CI, trying to get my m1 Mac and new docker builds to pass. I also need to finish adding support for hide and delete: most of the backend is done for that already.
I unfortunately tend to be ridiculously optimistic with ETAs, but I really want to have v1.0 out by end of January. The actual release will be preceded by at least a week or two of alpha and beta pre-releases, so if you’re willing to try those, you’ll get HEIF support a bit sooner.