As to the question of weather to take longer and offer the best product possible, I think that in a case like this it is the right call. Sure, there will be times when you just need to cut your losses and get a product out, but if the ilClan book is to set the tone for what is to come, then it has to have the right tone in and of itself.
Now, not having been there, I can't say how it looked before. One of thouse who can has said, and the others I think are unlikely to either conferm or deny the claim, so I can't know what's right. But, if we are to have a line director, then that line director needs to be alowed to direct. It may be that director has bad direction (again, untill the book comes out I've got no evidance either way, but I do hope for the best) and that's a problem for the folks who employ him, but so long as he has their trust, then I think he has not just the right but the responcability to judge what is right for the line and what is not. At least until the book is published, at which time we all get to judge, I suppose.