They can tour if there's just a single out. They were preforming a bunch of tracks from The Hunting Party without the tracks themselves being released when they toured for that album. Hell, they can premiere the first single mid-tour. They have a bunch of leeway here. We have a ballpark, but that's all we've got. I think the safest thing to say is that the album will be complete by then, not necessarily released.
Very true. But since the last three cycles, typically the new music comes within 1-1.5 month(s) of tour
Yeah, which is why it's misleading to say "The album will be out by the time of the tour". Would rather not get anyone's hopes up