There is an episode of the Dilbert Cartoon where he goes to work for the perfect engineering company making products meant to better humanity. Then mentions that its odd they don't have a marketing department which leads them to making one and going straight hell.
Marketing, communications, lobbying is all the same thing as a giant jerk trying to impress a girl at the bar. They are going to throw out everything they have at this shot and if it works great if not, well they well just move one stool down. Its about broad based marketing and mass info.
I've worked in politics, its the same darn thing. Just say what you want to say and hopefully you get that 50+1%. Same thing here, just push your line and hopefully you get enough people to keep buying.
I think they were hoping for more reactions like yours. You filled in the blanks to make the story fit your desired outcome. And for you it worked.
The problem comes with blanks being filled in by such a large and disparate group of people that turmoil is inevitable. Look at the looooong debate Psyren and I have had about the potential Galactic Dark Age. Or on how without lasting peace synthesis is just body horror, my stance.
If they had just had us hit the button kill the reapers and the Relays went, without the Catalyst then I think it would have worked better. But so many blanks and plot twists are introduced in such a short time. 14 lines of Dialogue expound an idea mentioned only a handful of times, extrapolate it into the final definition of the a conflict spanning a trilogy and wrap it up all at once. That's a recipe for disaster.