GothamJellyDonut

That's demonstrably not the case.

Gladly, but there is not a ton to share. This was the Brooklyn field office, which is co-located with other New York Field Offices at the Federal Building. There were no lines on a Saturday, but also most entrances were closed (Worth Street side was open), which took a few minutes to figure out. Inside it was deserted, with the Brooklyn waiting area on the 8th floor mostly empty. I went in business casual, most people were just casually dressed. After a five minute wait, the officer called my number and we proceeded to their office. They did not ask for any documents other than passport and green card. We went through the civics and language test, then through my application. I had filed by mail under the five year rule, so the spouse section had been left blank - but the officer asked the questions to complete it. We then corrected a few transcription errors introduced by the mail process - wouldn't do that again - but this was all very friendly and straightforward. Signed the application and the oath, then the officer advised me that they were having an oath ceremony at 1PM (we had started around 12:35) and that I would be invited to join if I so desired. I affirmed this, even though they explained there would be no way to get my family into the closed building on a Saturday. The ceremony itself was very low key, but beautiful - people from a multitude of backgrounds tearfully completing their immigration journey to mutual ovations, a very friendly officer sharing advice about voter registration, Social Security and passport applications before leading the oath. All together it took just under 90 minutes for me, now off to a nice dinner with my spouse to celebrate :).

All done, same day oath at the Brooklyn field office (in Manhattan), very pleasant officers, virtually no wait, tears were shed.

Best I can tell there is absolutely no link to the process; I have my interview coming up and the "months to completion" haven't changed other than by counting down by one every 30 days (showing 6 months right now).

I would just ignore that number. Mine still shows "7 months" with the interview scheduled in 4 weeks.

I strongly doubt that, more likely that upcoming elections motivate a number of people with very simple cases to file.

Just received the interview date (September 21st in NYC). Filed by mail, 5 year rule; received by NBC 7/1, Biometrics reuse 7/6 and now interview schedule, 8/5.

Your email might still hold them. If you have google maps on your phone, the location history can help a lot to figure out travel dates. USCIS/CBP will have your flight data, naturally.