Good question.
The Cycle and Modeler tools have always been developed by another team (ie not the core team working for Alfresco).
The Activiti core team decided to separate these tools, as we also didnt have much control over it (bugs, features, etc.).
This way, we focus on what we are good at: the best embeddable BPMN and workflow engine.
This explains the difference in release cycle. The Cycle and Modeler will still evolve, but on a different pace than the engine.
KickStart is another story: I wrote it a while back as a prototype. It isnt the direction we want to go in with the Activiti product.
The code will be moved to github shortly (I have the blog ready), so people who are interested can still find it there,and hopefully I will be able to spend some free time on it.