In general Discord is our main communication channel and as such non-essential information isn't getting published here on Steam, given Steam users tend to expect news on Steam to be limited to the most important information about the game and aren't very fond of other news. I recommend joining the Discord if you want to be kept up to date on everything - there is also a channel that shows recent development changes.
The different pipe types - next to allow you to choose between whatever material you currently have in abundance - exist so you can lay pipes next to each other without connecting them.