Those managers and publishers were likely looking at their burn rate and needed to get some funding to come in to keep the studio afloat. It's tough out there for games right now.
I get their argument that a city builder may not need high frame rates, but the 5-10 fps people have been reporting doesn't seem ideal either. The management definitely should have given the devs time to work out these issues, but I'd imagine the profits they made from going ahead with the launch will outweigh any criticisms.