it's likely that trion was hoping to have the issue fixed before they hit the point of no return on getting the UE's out. if they were able to fix the issue, then everyone would have been happy.
if the issue was announced on the 23rd we would have had these threads back then - probably more of them - with people moving possibly prematurely and cancelling their pre-orders
hindsight is 20/20 and NOW that people know it's delayed they wish they knew back then, but back then it's likely the defiance staff was hoping to have the issue fixed.