To me the latest announcement from Skoda regarding Tidemand not continuing and wishing him luck for next year seems to indicate that he is going somewhere specific next year not just out of Skoda, could be any of the 3 teams with free seats. Then there's Breen/Sordo/Ostberg/Paddon/Evans so that's potentially 6 drivers. I'm assuming Mikkelsen's contract assures him to drive all rounds but maybe not?
We only know for sure Hyundai will run 3 cars on all rallies. Maybe more but that's not certain. Citroen say they are thinking about it and MSport are saying nothing yet. Worst case is Citroen and MSport run just 2 full time cars and Hyundai 3 so that's just 2 full season seats available, I hope it won't be this, its much more interesting when the field has depth. Even if the worst case doesn't happen and there are more, some of those drivers will be left out and not all of them will have full season drives.
I think we may have to wait a bit to get a better picture, probably the budgets for next year aren't decided yet for the manufacturers and MSport i think depends a lot on what sponsors they get or budget of potential drivers who may themselves depend on sponsors and so on. So yeah it may drag on a bit. It may not even be clear by Monte who will drive what car for the full season. The thing is the main players have been decided already and of the drivers that are left there is no one who stands out enough either as an established star or a future prospect. Probably Sordo and/or Ostberg would be attractive for a manufacturer that wants to win the constructors championship as a "safe" 3rd driver.