I don't disagree w/ you, BUT, if I were a vendor I wouldn't claim such an optimistic release date because of the reasons you specified.
Keola does have a point though. Someone saying that "the system will be out in a few days", yet a month and a half go by and there's still no release of it definitely isn't making you look good.
While Terry has done similar things with saying "the Microtech will be out in a couple of months" and it wasn't released in that time frame, it's not as much as a let down since it wasn't as much of an overly optimistic ETA.
So anyway, I guess my point is that if you're going to publicly give an ETA of a product, make sure it's realistic enough to give yourself enough time to go through some BS while getting it out. You're only going to frustrate people, let them down, and damage your image if you don't.