I don't agree. If they went with Option C there wouldn't be outrage. Companies do that all the time. That tells people that the product is still supposed to be produced. Removing the product all together from their schedule is what causes outrage.
Removing it from the schedule is the same as picking some (likely arbitrary date). Nowhere, to my knowledge, has WotC stated "Sorry, but we've decided not to release these products. Ever. Period." Rather, its just an indication that it won't be released when they initially thought. If they removed it because they don't know when it will be ready, they can't say "Okay now we will release it on date X." If they did that and it still wasn't ready, and they had to move it again, then people would get outraged again. It's a lose-lose situation for WotC. Keep in mind, there are plenty of people who interpret a date on a release schedule to be a "promise" of release on that date and so get outraged every time it changes, claiming a broken promise.
Now should WotC have foreseen a potential problem before posting it on their release schedule? Possibly, maybe even probably. However, no business can ever guarantee that there will not be surprises. Maybe Essentials is selling better than expected and now they want to format all their books like Essentials. Maybe they did some testing of the proposed rules and realized they wouldn't work after all (okay that might be a stretch
), maybe they contracted a sizable portion to a freelancer who had to quit for some reason. Who knows? The problem is though, that there might not be any way to gauge when the product would be released.
Sure they could make a statement and say "Book X has been delayed, we hope to have it out by X, or 'soon', etc." but the same problem with people thinking every word is a promise will hold true and then again accuse WotC of lying if its not out by X, or "soon", etc.
At the end of the day, it really doesn't effect the current D&D player all that much. It doesn't invalidate your current materials. It doesn't require you to pay more money for something that isn't there. At most, it affects the player who says "I'll pick up D&D, or Essentials, when book Y is released". Personally though, I doubt that this represents much of the potential customer base though.
At any rate, just my two coppers on the matter.
