Tks for the additional clarifications.  We are both concerned about the same thing per one of my recent posts.

<Can we read anything into it if no ruling before mediation starts? Would he try to be unbiased and let mediation progress a bit and chime in later if no progress? How likely is that?>

I did not get much feedback on that, but my thinking is that he might want to hear what the issues are and whether any possibility for settlement from the mediator before doing anything to influence settlement one way or the other.  IMO  GLTY Opty