dgp: Thanks for sharing the interesting data about languages. I learned a few things.
You wrote: "Why can't the Watchtower do something like this with its translators? Why is is that, regarding Bible translation, the Harlot puts a lot more effort than Jehovah's (self-appointed) organization?"
My take: Obviously, the WT wants its followers to stay away from academia by setting that example. As to ‘the Harlot putting a lot more effort than JWs organization’ I have to say that is true, but only from the perspective of academic credentials. Putting that aside (i.e. no effort in customary credentials), I cannot say the WT was careless in their translation efforts, or that they didn't spend the energy necessary to do translation work.
The evidence is that originally they spent nearly 14 years in the translation process, that is just for the English edition. After that, they spent a considerable amount of money and energy to further translate the English version into other languages, no easy task itself. The total man-hours spent on the project is mind-boggling. Not to mention the financial amount needed to do so. Yes, they did it for less money, but it is still expensive to produce a bible translation in many languages. Just look around and see how many corporations have been able to pull it off. Add to that the many man-hours to update those versions. The 1984 revision obviously took a lot of effort.
Furthermore, the WT also produced ‘the best Greek-English interlinear on the market.’ No easy task. Some bible translations have offered more than 10 thousand, even 20k footnotes plus some other informative material (after spending thousands of $, if not millions, in some cases), but as good as they are, and I enjoy the notes tremendously, many of those notes are of theological nature. On the other hand, the NWT Reference Bible produced more of a critical apparatus in their footnotes, than a theological kind. To some here for sure, may not be a big thing, but there are many of us who appreciate that kind of critical apparatus the NWT provided. By the way, the Catholic Encyclopedia written by scholars of academic credentials described such notes as "an impressive critical apparatus." So, not only JW's appreciate it, but even some outsiders do. It takes considerable knowledge and good judgment to produce a critical apparatus such as that one produced in the NWT Reference Bible of 1984.
You mentioned that dominating a language (not biblical) is no evidence of competence, or the gist of it in reference to Fred Franz. That is basically true, nevertheless, in the case of Fred Franz, is indicative of his intelligence. Remember, he did study some Greek, and passed with good grades (grades of which have been made public), though he dropped the course before he obtained a degree. He continued his language studies in private.
Like I said before, his nephew Ray Franz (though a victim himself of WT shunning) have mentioned to others of Fred's linguistic abilities, and of his "unusually mentally disciplined" nature at it. I have reason to believe Fred Franz was the principal translator of the NWT. Reports from WT insiders also revealed he held correspondence with various Jewish and Greek scholars during translation. Some here have speculated that Fred was careless in his translation effort, and that he based his work on one or other translation. That tells me these individuals have not checked it against the Hebrew and Greek text. A WT insider told me Fred had a special room loaded with bible reference works right up to the ceiling. No, Fred was not a copycat. From my personal studies, I can tell some translators and scholars may have influenced his decision making at the time of translating. It appears he made good use of the Rotherham and Young's Bibles, as well as American Standard Version, Moffat's and Goodspeed's, Concordant Version, Diaglott translations among others, and Soncino's Books. It is evident he made use of German works as well, since he read German. In all, it seems that Fred was on top of it.
On the bad side, Fred was responsible for many of the wacky theological theories he expounded in WT publications. The chronological emphasis was likely his as well, and we know he made many "victims" of us. And he likely was behind the disfellowshipping of his nephew Ray Franz. (at the least, he did not helped him) And likely responsible for disfellowshipping Ed Dunlap (the author of the book of James) after decades of WT service.
But without Fred and Ray, the WT articles have been dumbed down further, to the point that the WT of today with is mindless repetition of faithful and discreet slave (worship) is an embarrasment to the whole religious community. I don't think Jesus deserves such treatment. As a matter of fact, the Father Jehovah may not be happy with this outcome either.