Hmm... I was disappointed with M2TW myself, but only because of the poor AI and that EB is excellent, IMO better than M2TW. M2TW has a lot of improvements over RTW. I haven't tried the 1.2 patch yet, maybe AI has improved too. The most damaging bugs were removed in the first patch, like the game hanging when the AI tried to move all his troops up on the walls.

M2TW is not alone in having bugs at release time. It is true of pretty much any PC game more complex than Bejeweled released since the obiquity (sp?) of internet. So why do developers release buggy products? Because it recoups some of their invested money earlier than otherwise. Also they see how good sales are, which sets the level of support provided for the game. If the sales are next to nothing, there would be no reason to release any patches. Betatesting costs as much wages per day as development time, and likely more. Knowledge of market reception is paramount.

Anyway, end users have proven time and time again that they will accept buggy products rather than wait for a long time to get it. Even you. I didn't buy Alexander myself because I believed the extra content would be irrelevant when M2TW came out, but not out of fear it would be buggy. So why shouldn't they?

Anyway, your report is answered.