Have you considered that maybe Nomura didn't want to keep up a facade? If this is a case of Nomura being taken off the project and his final vision being compromised to ship the game, would he want his name on it as director? It takes two hands to clap. When there's internal tension between business and creative, it can be very hard to keep up the pretense.
It is entirely possible that Nomura is forcing this announcement specifically to make it look the way you say it does, because that's the only way he can communicate it to his fans and he doesn't want to lie to people. Note that Nomura hasn't given any interview or statement regarding his removal as director. Previously he would be the first to make comments about anything new regarding the title at media events. I think that's pretty telling.
