I know nothing about their development process, but Gearbox do not seem like the kind of people who'd actively seek to deceive their fans. Its development was clearly troubled, and the game was likely pushed to market by an anxious publisher.
From a creative standpoint, the best thing to do would have been to delay and retool the game. But that's not always possible when you're dealing with the sorts of money in play here. But, then again, that's the risk you take when you accept projects as large as this.
As for Randy's silence. Sure. He must know by now that ACM was not a particularly good game. Acknowledging it publicly would burn bridges with its publisher. Not only that, but shame and embarrass all the people who worked on it, people he knows and likes. Nobody went into this project intending or expecting to make a bad game.
I really sympathise with him. The most depressing parts of my career have been when I've been forced to put out work that has been sub par and needed more time, but my hands were tied. And yeah, I don't want to talk about it either.
It is certainly a nuanced issue and I absolutely feel for creatives when things like this happen, but there are a few other elements at play here. Randy (it feels odd using the first name of someone I will never meet) hasn't exactly been silent. This thread in particular started because he resurfaced on twitter to promote his game on twitter.
This is a huge problem with how games are marketed in my opinion. It dosen't make sense that the person heading up development is also the face of the marketing campaign. I get why PR departments push such things, but when things go sideways like they did with Colonial Marine it puts one person in two crossfires simultaneously. So now Randy is handcuffed, which sucks for him.
Of course when he responds to this now I am put in a position where I don't know who is speaking. Is it the developer or the PR guy? I want to talk to the developer. I like developers! I want to scold at the PR guy. We don't like PR guys!
Game development is getting more and more expensive. Publishers are responding by being even more controlling with their marketing and press access. While I don't think there was straight up lying/deception in this case, if things keep going down this road, it is going to happen.
As a consumer I have to rely on the gaming press to combat this. If they don't then we will reach a point where I won't be able to believe anything a developer says about their game. Which sucks because I like developers!
Sorry for the length, but I am procrastinating pretty hard right now.