That's true, but then again, with the tech update I'd have liked if they had looked for more posers before and would have stuck with the original schedule. As mentioned, the backgrounds are done for quite some time now and if DC had stuck to the 5 to 8 scenes he promised, the art would likely have finished two months or so ago.
With the main story there was little that could have been done to increase the speed, except cutting content of course. But this time they actually added a lot of art content to the tech update because the posing/coding side is slow. That could and should have been avoided in my opinion, even though the content is ultimately welcomed and needed. Now DC even started to draw the front yard locations of the new buildings - don't get me wrong, these are needed at some point, but it just doesn't have to happen now.
As you say, it's bad publicity in the first place.