Completely agree that CodeIgniter is not the top framework anymore. That happened about 8 years ago when EllisLab basically abandoned the framework and everyone jumped ship. In that time Laravel has made huge market gains. No surprise there, it's a good framework, even if I dislike quite how magical it is in a number of places. That doesn't mean it's appropriate for every developer, team, or project. That's why Phalcon, Nette, and others are still around also.
And I do remember Laravel 4/5 days when everyone was complaining that it changed too much and broke BC too much. Taylor and crew have gotten much better since then.
I would argue that just because it doesn't have the 2 features you'd like doesn't mean it's stagnating. It's still growing and improving, just at a slower pace than you'd like. Everyone is always welcome to help more, like I know you have, if they'd like to see it move along faster.
