Yamamoto Yutaka confirmed to be freelance
So yeah, it has been confirmed that Yamakan is out. A lot of people seem to have been confused about Yamakan’s role in Haruhi, basically he was in charge of enshutsu for the entire Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu series, which can be loosely translated to mean that he was in charge of direction/presentation, or for a longer and more detailed description, ex.org had a pretty good english description. If you have an account with niconico video, you can check this small collection of scenes by Yamakan too.
