I think a few things are happening here.
First, Paizo got ripped for going pretty far with the fighter. I think they consciously showed components of the Rogue that are familiar to appease the players that were freaking out about the fighter.
I hope you’re right about this being the reason they didn’t show anything particularly interesting for the rogue, and not just that all the rogue has is Sneak Attack and skills.
Second, one method of making higher level play work is to expand the feel of low level to higher level. This means powers that were traditionally given out earlier in PF1 now show up later. Assuming all classes do this, then the rogue won't suffer.
I think some of the learnings that both WotC and Paizo have learned is that too many features that cause cognitive overload at lower levels is an issue. If you can create new options without cognitive overload at low levels, then slide cognitive overload features to higher levels, you expand the game play range that most people use. I feel this is the path that PF is taking but I have no actual proof yet.
But that only fixes the math of high level. It doesn’t fix the fact that it can easily take a year of real-life time to get there. I don’t want to have to spend 8 months doing nothing more engaging in combat than maneuvering to the right position to make my damage output not suck before I can actually start applying some interesting debuffs. I’m all for the general idea of spreading the cognitive load of a class out over a few levels so new players don’t get overwhelmed, but Debilitating Strikes seem to be the one thing they’ve shown that gives Rogues actual choices to make in combat. Otherwise it’s just auto-pilot: can you get Sneak Attack? If yes, Attack. If no, attempt to move to a flanking position (or whatever circumstance your Feats allow you to Sneak Attack under.) Repeat until you’ve earned enough experience to actually start getting choices to make. The amount of time Rogues should be forced to spend playing that way should be as small as possible. If the Fighter is getting to choose between Power Attack, that Attack that lets them frighten the target on a hit for two actions, or that attack that lets you slow an enemy with a bow attack by 6th level, a rogue should be choosing which Debilitating Strike to apply at around the same time.
If they want to put boring Feats like Shield bonus to Reflex at 14th level, I don’t really care because I’ll probably never play one campaign for that long. But I shouldn’t have to wait until my character is already half way to 20 before getting the first Feat that gives me something cool to do.
On a different not, I think there are some interesting choices for rogue players with what they have chosen to show. You can go the mobility route moving around without provoking. You can go the sticky route and move with enemies that try to move away from you. You can make it easier to get off your sneak attack with some of the new feats (no longer needing flank, etc). And all of this is before you take Ancestry and Skill feats into the equation. I think there are plenty of options and things to do.
Those are interesting build choices, but they don’t give you interesting choices to make from turn to turn. Ancestry and Skill Feats might provide some interesting in-the-moment choices, but it sucks that the Class has to rely on those alone when other classes can get the same Feats
and get interesting choices from their Class Feats.
Edit: Also, don't forget the rogue has 3 actions a round as well like the fighter. This could mean multiple attacks, or setting up a sneak attack and attempting that twice (at least I don't think SA is limited to once a round...). At any rate. The 3 action system I think heavily impacts the rogue at lower levels.
Sure, but the Fighter gets choices of what to do with those actions. Charge and attack a second time, or move regularly and Power Attack? Or charge and raise shield? Raise shield and Power Attack, or Power Attack and regular attack? In place of that, the Rogue seems to get a simple heuristic: Use the smallest number of actions as necessary to enable you to use Sneak Attack. Spend all remaining actions attacking as many times as possible.
