That's correct. The tidyverse is more about modular packages that are designed to play well with one another. The main issue with caret is that, being all in one package, it is very difficult to extend it into areas that people are interested in.
If you interested in the game plan, there is a tentative list of projects that we are working on. A good chunk is infrastructure. Please suggest things too.
The bottom line is that the tidymodels set should do what caret does and more. They'll be more worked examples coming especially when parsnip and the workflow package is done.
Is there a natural way to use model validation/interpretation packages like iml and DALEX?
Not yet but I don't think that it would be difficult. I use those and lime so there is interest there.