The real reason this adventure is so bad is because the writers were basically writing in the dark, and so much about the game changed after they had already finalized the manuscript.
I'm not saying this in any way excuses what happened. It excuses the writers to some degree, but not the product. WotC had to know this was a terrible, terrible way to run the show, but they did it anyway, probably because some marketing genius told them the staggered release would make people buy more product. I suppose it worked, since people did buy HotDQ, but they lost a lot of good will in this boneheaded maneuver. Selling future adventures is not going to be easy.
I know the OP means "why" in the sense of "what's so bad about it," and I can't believe there are still people fighting tooth and nail to defend this awful rubbish. But honestly, you can only claim it's good if you were either (a) a player with a veteran DM who knew how to avoid the numerous pitfalls endemic in the story, or (b) a veteran DM who didn't mind the shoddy, scattered presentation of the thing and who knew how to avoid the aforementioned pitfalls.
I'm not saying this in any way excuses what happened. It excuses the writers to some degree, but not the product. WotC had to know this was a terrible, terrible way to run the show, but they did it anyway, probably because some marketing genius told them the staggered release would make people buy more product. I suppose it worked, since people did buy HotDQ, but they lost a lot of good will in this boneheaded maneuver. Selling future adventures is not going to be easy.
I know the OP means "why" in the sense of "what's so bad about it," and I can't believe there are still people fighting tooth and nail to defend this awful rubbish. But honestly, you can only claim it's good if you were either (a) a player with a veteran DM who knew how to avoid the numerous pitfalls endemic in the story, or (b) a veteran DM who didn't mind the shoddy, scattered presentation of the thing and who knew how to avoid the aforementioned pitfalls.