Quote Originally Posted by KariTheFox View Post
Do... do you think the "deadline" here is referring to Endwalker's release date, and not an internal preproduction deadline around the end of 2019-2020 like the quote was talking about?
There were multiple delays and the official release date was pushed back at least twice. Once right before it was due to go live so that 'additional tweaks' could be made. In a separate interview Yoshi-P admitted to spending a month getting Hydaelyn's face 'just right' so there's certainly plenty of things at play that have been raised throughout the existence of this thread and others. All sourced, for your convenience.

Add into that the numerous retcons relating to large swathes of the game's established plot threads so far and it really does seem more likely than not that the usual quality control and consistency was sacrificed on many fronts. Again, for reasons frequently outlined across the many threads related to the subject of Venat.