This just in - a business, which is reliant on YOUR money, which sunk somewhere north of $100 million into this project, gets its jollies by irritating you to the point where you'll not pay them for the product.
Does the make ANY sense to ANYONE? No? Then, guess what, they're not doing this to "play" you. They want servers that work the week of 12/20, not a one month long crash fest that just about every other MMO in existence dealt with.