You can blame your fellow countrymen who due to their actions give your country a bad rep, hence more scrutiny.
Previous poster was not exactly correct, if your B2 is denied you most certainly can apply for ESTA in the future, but answering 'yes' to the question of ever being denied a visa will almost certainly mean ESTA denial too.
You mentioned withdrawing your B2 application, if you do it now then it will be marked as a refusal.
Basically forget about your future ESTA plan until this B2 application is sorted one way or another.
If you have already talked to people on the same situation and it can take 11 months, not sure what the point of this topic was.
This 'uncertain limbo' that you are not OK with... nobody cares, certainly not the US, so there is nothing you can do apart from wait.