πολλὰ μὲν αὐτὸς ἀεὶ τοὺς παρόντας ἀνηρώτα πῶς ἔχοντα τυγχάνοι,
Do we need to understand πράγματα here? πολλὰ μὲν αὐτὸς ἀεὶ τοὺς παρόντας ἀνηρώτα πῶς ἔχοντα τὰ πράγματα τυγχάνοι,
πολλὰ is adverbial here – “often”.
of course, it is but I do not know how to understand ἔχοντα, is it a substantivized participle? If not, what does it refer to?
OK, I see what you mean, and πολλὰ is not “often,” but rather “many things,” the subject of the indirect question πολλὰ . . . πῶς ἔχοντα τυγχάνοι. But I don’t think you need to supply a specific word such as πράγματα with πολλὰ in the Greek, unlike English – the neuter plural alone is sufficient.