You're assuming the bug fixing patch was being worked on. That's the mistake.How exactly do you delay a bug fix patch? Why is a bug fix patch a preview patch? What are we previewing? A working game? When are the ferals that are sitting in the game's code going to be added outside of someone's mod?
It's easy to delay if you just ignore it for the entire holidays, and then get started once another month hass gone by and suddenly people are asking what you're working on.