I think that has more to do with the lack of capital. Funcom isn't backed by a monolithic gaming corporation with plenty of resources to spare. Mythic can pull this off because they have the resources to hire people just to go into the game and patch things. Funcom doesn't.

If Funcom wasn't so ambitious, they'd have done just fine, but they went well beyond their reach. Reaching for the stars is fine, just don't do it over the open mouth of a volcano.