I hope that Platinum can use this new delay time to just get rid of the gamepad screen altogether and give the graphics a decent boost with the freed up processing capacity.  It made sense 2 years ago to try to make the second screen work back when Nintendo was still trying to justify the gamepad's existance.  At this point, though, I don't think there's any shame in not utilizing the gamepad... we all know what the Wii U's future is at this point and I think a lot of fans would be happy enough to just have a sweet-looking HD Star Fox game. 

That doesn't make sense. If it were about saving face, then Miyamoto's good name wouldn't be put on the game. The entire situation is rather a punishment. Basically, it looks like he has to finish at least one of the Gamepad projects (the others, namely Project Robo and Project Guard, won't see the light of the day).

It isn't unlike how Activision sank Silicon Knights, but it's obviously not on the same devastating scale.

I can't agree with the second sentence. I think you are unfamiliar with what Activision did to Denis Dyack. They continued to give him money in order to completely destroy his reputation; they could have cancelled the game, but they didn't.

Treating Miyamoto in such a manner will take him down a few notches which in turn will give Nintendo an opportunity to put younger developers into the spotlight. This way Nintendo also gets around the inevitable concerns about what happens to the company once Miyamoto retires. There are clear benefits to wasting money on this Star Fox game, especially because a good chunk of the workload isn't done by Nintendo's inhouse teams, so Nintendo's most precious resources aren't affected too much.

Although I have to say that this theory sounds too malicious to be true. But at least it makes more sense than "allowing Miyamoto to save face" because the game isn't shaping up to be a hit.

I hope that Platinum can use this new delay time to just get rid of the gamepad screen altogether and give the graphics a decent boost with the freed up processing capacity.  It made sense 2 years ago to try to make the second screen work back when Nintendo was still trying to justify the gamepad's existance.  At this point, though, I don't think there's any shame in not utilizing the gamepad... we all know what the Wii U's future is at this point and I think a lot of fans would be happy enough to just have a sweet-looking HD Star Fox game. 

If it's punishment, they could just demote him. Letting him continue spending Nintendo's money is a pretty wasteful method of punishment.

The problem, as Soundwave has pointed out, that this is essentially a vanity project for Miyamoto, to allow him to save face by making a game designed around the Gamepad, instead of facing the fact that the Wii U's dual screen concept is a failure.

Any rational dev would long since have dropped the two screens gimmick, but Miyamoto sees the game's entire purpose as a platform to say "look, the Gamepad can be used for unique stuff" instead of just focussing on making a good game and then using Gamepad features if and when they make sense.