The fact that some kind of drama is being made about this is the depressing part. Are people really this clueless about the process of developing these kinds of huge projects.
Movies, games, music albums, every single major project and even plenty of minor ones are going to finish with stuff left on the cutting room floor, stuff that possibly had some redeeming qualities but didnt fit or didnt work for one reason or other. Shitty game "journalist" sites are partly to blame for trying to make a mountain out of this molehill entirely for clicks.