"Future" definitely does not mean "never" unless you literally see the word, "Never" in that column (see Chatter Messenger for example). Future generally means "not yet." The roadmap only contains specific timing for features scheduled with the upcoming release and the one after, and it gets updated every 3 months. I have definitely seen Recycle bin on the list of features that is high on the radar.

If there are specific ideas you would like to hear an update about, please post them here and we'll see if we can reach the product manager(s) to comment. The product team has a goal to retire a minimum number of points every release, and while the selection process is a bit more involved than simply implementing the most popular ideas in order of votes (feasibility and dependencies being two important factors), a lot of popular ideas get delivered each release. The Lightning Roadmap is by no means intended to be an exhaustive or detailed list, it's more high level. It would be impossible to maintain a granular list addressing every nuance and sub-feature. This is why we recommend you transition users to lightning in phases, and for you that would mean starting with the folks who don't need to merge contacts with different record currencies on a daily basis. If they only need to do this occasionally, then in my opinion they would be better off in Lightning and switching back just for that particular task. Hope this helps!