I do believe this mess up was sufficient to impact spending patterns, particularly coupled with some of the era things going on.
I do recide in a +700M guild so I chat with a lot of spenders (and I am one of them myself).
I agree that CG's track record isn't exactly impressive in this regard, but I did feel like they tried to be more open with the "fireside chat" leading up to relic delta.
This would be a chance to open up more - or at least just to do the due dilligence and then at the least communicate that to us.
Capital Games Team