I don't know how it could be rushed when it was announced well over a year ago and delayed twice. It seems more like they either didn't have a vision for what they wanted, or didn't have the resources to implement it. But given how much more XP and rewards the NMs give and that a player zerg blob can spawn them faster, how could they possibly not realize players would do that? It's the most obvious conclusion to come to once you understand how stuff works in there and you say "how do I get my stuff with as little time and effort as possible?"
And by scaling damage so quickly with level and XP the way they do, they created this situation where my group of friends is effectively divided into at least three groups when it comes to playing in Eureka instead of the one we want to be (and can be in basically everything else because level sync).
Maybe. I imagine that's really tedious for the PLD, though.
Have they not seen what players did throughout the history of the game? As soon as players figure out the mechanics, they optimize to minimize time and effort. ALWAYS. That's what players do. Players are very, very good at that.As to why they didn't think of it? I don't think they expected it to be a zerg rush.
If nobody at SE saw this coming, then they have an astounding lack of understanding of their own customers.