Your general thrust is correct:
Even a project that is still going strong has no obligation to keep snaps properly updated. The LibreOffice devs could, for example, decide that snap maintenance is just not worth their while and "abandon" it. This would be a severe case and so high-profile that Canonical would likely do something about it, but a little-known app could very well get orphaned with no one bothering to deal with it.
To my knowledge, so long as they don't violate any licenses, snaps can be packaged by third-parties, though I cannot attest to this as fact.
A snap could be offered by one member of a development team who then has a falling out with the other devs, which leads to its abandonment.
An app doesn't have to actually be orphaned to cause trouble. The devs could mistakenly upload a buggy version or an unstable one. The ability to keep snaps more current cuts both ways. By divorcing snaps from the traditional repository vetting process, the distro maintainers pass on those responsibilities to outside parties. Passing on responsibilities also mean passing on control.
Bookmarks