We still get weekly ward meeting emails focused on Jesus with nary a mention of Joseph Smith. Long ago, Joseph was front and center with scant mention of Jesus. So what is Joseph's status now? is he revered or shoved in a dark corner?

I think these things come & go kinda like the tide;

So much depends on local focus even with 'correlation'.

Mormonism is sick sick sick Gasping for air.

2014, spring, TSCC announced their Church History Museum would be closing for more than a year to be "remodeled", replacing Joseph with Jesus, to make him more the center of the "church history" story/ focus/ image/ message.

Has anyone been to the Church History Museum since then, or BEFORE and AFTER the "remodel"?

Old news:

From my Aug 2019 visit to my former home ward's sacrament meeting. Not one mention of JS or the Book of Mormon or even a prayer asking to bless Prez Nelson or any church leader. There were references to scriptures and all of them came from the NT.

The church has been steadily restructuring its curriculum to dump as much mormonism as possible.

Are the Jesus messages from the New Testament or from church leaders?

A few years ago I received a ward Xmas message that was merely an extended excerpt from an Oaks talk about Jesus; no bible or Jesus quotes.

It's a subtle way of pretending to be Jesus-centric while retaining the primacy of the Q15, controlling the narrative, and cementing the average mormon's dependence on leadership.

Talks are very much about quoting church leaders. This is so encouraged, it borders on being required.

The reasons you give for why they would do that are spot on in my opinion. They get to control the narrative, and it breeds dependence.

Logged Out Today and Brother of Jerry have a good handle on where the Mormon cult is headed. It's not towards Christ, but toward the GA interpretation of Christ. Rusty wants to elevate himself as a Joseph Smith replacement, much like a US president might want to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln. Narcissism is narcissism, and the Mormon GA's are full of it!

No one thinks that all this round-about second-hand quoting of Jesus, or putting JESUS CHRIST in big capital letters, or dropping the word "Mormon" and all the other ploys have broght Mormonism any closer to Christianity.

Rusty didn't work this hard at being a bigoted arrogant ass not even pretending humility in order to make it all the way to the top, willing himself to escape the grim reaper year after year, just to have Joseph Smith ruin it all as Joseph became the church's biggest Liability. Arguably of course, cuz uh, Brigham.
And uh, BoA and BoM. Oh, and uh, racism, homophobia and misogyny, but hey those are under control, right?

As always, tscc has always drawn most converts from the already converted Christian population. If they want to hold onto investigators and new members they do NOT want them going to the internet to research the history of JS, early leaders, and Mormonism in general. Today they are probably skipping the middle men and teaching that Jesus is Lord and LDS, Inc. is the Lord's mouthpiece period. Why enlighten the ignorant with any hints that pertain to the BofM or Joseph's questionable past. Keep it simple.

What kind of idiots would still convert with all the info about the cult readily available on the internet?

I remember when I still attended meetings and leaders were telling members to only go to church websites for information about the cult. I was terrified to look at RFM back then.

Investigators would be free (and smart) to check out this snake oil for sale and once they do they would/should run for the hills.

Probably so-

Like in Trading Places?

I think COVID19 is stealing Rusty’s fire.

The church is all about Praise Jesus now. Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon was great when the world believed America was a magical promised land. That was great stuff to sell overseas and to immigrants. Those days are over.

Was he to catch a bus
Or get thrown under one

If you've ever been to a LDS church (before pandemic hit) you'd see maybe about two or three different assortments of folks.

Whoever is returning might only want to see who's left.

I got my job through LDS connections, I gotta go.