Well, I'm impressed that a college kid, in his spare time, was able to knock out a shell of an AH in 5 hours... I mean, hey, if he can do it in 5 hours... how long is it going to take a professional to do it? Either way, no excuse not to have an AH in the game.

Reviews will be awful if they 're-release' without an AH... again.
Anyway, point is, it was impressive that he did that in 5 hours. Yes, it's not a fully functioning AH but he did THAT in 5 hours. Like I previously said, not even a full day at the office in Japan. (Or majority of the world).
That's just it. It's a very small part of the whole system. then there's the fact that it has to be repeated for each and every server (there are at least 18, along with any testing servers they may have!). Auction House isn't something that can be made quickly, let alone even necessary, there are tons of other projects to work on that should have more priority than the AH.