Indeed, and that is the big "problem"....
weirdal27, even if you make it something like a constantly updated sticky thread, many plugin-makers wont bother to post it there or make a request... They can indeed already do that by doing what Choli said. But as you can see, not everybody does it.
I too have find it a pitty that the plugins-database isn't updated like it should. But to make it like it should, it is almost like a full-time job, because you need to check every post/update/etc... in the plugins-forum (because the plugin-makers don't bother reporting their updates to the official plugin-database)
The big problem is that most people will create new threads for every update they do to their plugin, so you can't pinpoint a thread and saying "that's the thread for that plugin". Also requests, talk, etc. about plugins are all in the same forum. And as such, many info/updates/plugins/etc. are lost within the forest of threads...
Also, not all plugin-makers make decent readme/instructions/installers and that's also part of the problem, because "n00b" people sometimes have a hard time in doing/installing/using stuff. And as all the info is scattered around the plugin-forum it is very hard for those people to find anything of usefull info...
So to keep track of everything, you need to constantly monitor and adapt the database yourself. And believe me, it takes heaps of time and tons of effort
/ 
