Armory should really come up with the new version (offline/online) fast unless they want to lose individual users forever. If the money is a problem, I'm sure most users are willing to give a few bucks each to help the developers finish the new version.
i do not think the team is big, development is slow but armory is still best/safest client right now
i think just a armory lite version will be nice, current is very heavy and hard to keep synced.