VEX Sales told me about three weeks ago they expected to have it up on the site after two weeks or so, so about by now. That doesn’t imply anything about when it will ship, though.
As for the ports, let’s say you have a side and front ultrasonic distance sensor, and you use both sides to account for red/blue. Well, there go 6 ports. A few limit switches or bumpers will push you right past 8. And maybe you want some values that won’t change when the motors turn on so you want to include some pots, too. Etc.