Artistic vision and freedom of expression are all well and good but in a game they should be there augment, rather than supplant, the GAMEplay. Games are fundamentally different from most other art forms due to the fact that the observer plays an active, rather than a passive, role in experiencing the medium and are, in fact, an integral part in the realisation of the vision. Anything that hinders that experience and that engagement with the medium such as bad controls, not feeling involved enough in the outcome etc. can be viewed as a failure on the part of the developer, even if aesthetically and narratively the game achieves exactly what it intended.
The corollary would be an artist creating a great masterpiece and then unveiling it in a darkened gallery because he/she feels that best represents his/her artistic vision. You can't argue against the 'art' of it, but you can understand that people who came along to see a painting are going to be disappointed.
Ultimately it appears as though the developer's mistake was creating a game that many people don't like all that that much and I don't for a minute believe that was part of their vision.
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