It seems to change daily. We were there a few weeks ago and the walls/machines were in different places during our week.
Generally speaking, it's not a good time to get perfect castle photos, no. I was watching the PhotoPass guys take people's pictures with walls and cranes, though, and it made me wonder if Disney is replacing the background on those photos with clean views online. We don't do PhotoPass anymore though so I can't say.
By late fall, hopefully, a lot of it will be done. They did get part of the moat refilled already. The cranes they've been using to paint the castle will be gone, certainly, but if by "late fall" you mean November, they may be back in place to hang the Christmas lights.