My 2 cents is this is the hand of Zenimax. They were in a dire situation financially and first they rushed their first live service, in Fallout 76 hoping they will get a piece of the live service pie. Probably, around the same time, asked Arkane to make a live service as well and Redfall was planned, but took way to much time and due to their finances, MS stepped in and bought Zenimax. Now Redfall is in development and MS do not want a live service game and the asked Arkane to make a 180 degree turn and make it a single player (thus the microtransaction store removed, always online to be removed etc), but this pushed back a lot the development and that's why Redfall was delayed last year, hoping that the live service backbone was removed. Due to the lack of 1st party games, MS could not wait another few years to make Redfall a good single player experience and decided to have it released in this bad state, so that can move Arkane to another project where they shine, immersive sim. I think this was a calculate decision by MS and they took the fall for it, just they could move on.