They needed Scalebound to be a great new game, but ultimately made the right decision to not try to make something work that probably did not work from the early concepts. The hype around that and Redfall was at best lukewarm, most not caring that much, so pushing through with either is a dumb idea from the start.
Here they had still the same problem, they needed something, anything, but this time no suit cared enough to actually look if either moving the date much further back, maybe outright reboot the whole thing into soemthing else or just cancel it all together would be the better option, despite costs. MS not checking what they will get is stupid, but Bethesda management seems to be equally to blame. Basically throwing their new overlords under the bus while delivering two Sony exclusives were one was okay and the other an overhyped GOTY candidate. That's just bonkers to finish that contract in expected quality and then release a stinker for the one company that is paying the bills going forward. MS must get rid of remaining Bethesda people that clearly don't have MS's best interest at heart if that hands off approach is truthfully reported here.