My original post was phrased as a question, and I was hoping to promote some more thought provoking discussion than lamenting the difficulties of being an accident investigator. Yes, I get it - it's a hard job.
My question still stands.
Does it actually take two years to run an investigation on a GA accident? If it does, then case closed - it takes two years. I suspect, however, that it doesn't. My assertion is that there would be a marked safety benefit in releasing the report earlier.
Where does the time actually get spent? Is it paper pushing to get around legal issues? Not enough resources meaning things get put on the back burner every time something more serious comes up?
Might I suggest that if you haven't been trained and conducted an accident investigation then attempting valid comment on the process is both uninformed and without value.
Great suggestion.
That's why I posted the question to a forum of aviation professionals.