Well at some point they signed off having maps that small. AT some point they said "100% online sounds fine", "bugged and not working? Lets release it!" etc. The vast number of mistakes means that a hige number of people involved didn't know what they were doing.

Also if the Devs know better, they should fight their corner and explain why they know best, otherwise things like this happen.

This doesn't make any sense.  The developers don't have to agree.  They just have to do it.  Otherwise they will just be fired, and EA management will find someone else to implement the design they want.

Not at all as that is not how companies work. The publishers will not just fire a dev team as the legal problems in that would be huge. The dev team just have to put forward a convincing argument backup by market research that if changes a, b, and c happen, then their is a very high chance of failure. If the publisher still argued, then the devs should take their argument to the people funding the publishers aka the investors. Sure, you won't win any brownie points with the publisher, but if you made everyone a lot of money with a good game, then no one complains. However when you make a shit game like Sim City, you end up losing your job and company therefore what do the devs have to lose by fighting the publish?

And also, why not crowd source the game? Look at Star Citizen and how that is doing. A big franchise will always find an investor who is willing to negotiate.

Who said anything about firing the entire team?  You just have to threaten to fire the lead if he doesn't do what you want.

You seem to think Maxis was an independant developer working for EA.  Not true.  Maxis is part of EA. Or was part of EA.  They were one and the same.  EA has been pulling this anit-consumer crap for a decade now.  Not sure why you thought this would be any different.

You do know how management works right?

At many points someone could have brought up the problems with the game design and concepts and acted how I said (e.g. veto the retarded parts of the game). The fact that everyone went along with it is shocking.

You probably will when shut down a team you like.

Who said I don't like Maxis? I'm a big Sims fan and I like their other IPs, but I don't see a reason for Maxis to exist nowadays. The core of Maxis isn't the only one who can make Sims games and the like, and the Sims 3 which was mainly made by the Sims Studio (which is a branch of Maxis, not Maxis itself) is kinda proof of that. And even when Maxis makes a game themselves like SimCity 2013, they fail. And it doesn't matter if that was the fault of Maxis or EA. And even then, Maxis didn't get shut down completely at all..

I want to live in your world, where empirical data always persuades the folks in charge, and if it doesn't then doggoneit the nebulous shareholders
(few of whom give a damn about specific games, or games in general, and many of whom probably don't even know they own stock) will surely listen to a game designer when he brings this matter to their attention!

Unfortunately, in our world the company officers often prefer tight schedules and pet features, the directors are more invested in the officers whom they've chosen to run the company than some cog in the machine, the investors pay little attention to any but the biggest projects, and the employee who unilaterally "vetoes" his boss' commands quickly ends up in the unemployment line. And this is for the average company, not a titan of The Industry like EA who has proven, repeatedly, that it will raze entire well-known development studios if it so pleases, thank you very much.

Yes, many companies are ran like that, and they all end up the same way as Maxim. The few that are still about show that good management is the difference between success and failure, but one issue in gaming is that a lot of management have no idea what the hell they are doing, and fewer have the charisma needed to push an idea or concept to senior folks.

EA is the management of Maxis.  Or was, until they decided they were no longer worth keeping open.  They made the game the way it turned out on purpose.  Maxis was a part of EA for 18 years.  By that point, I am sure their cultures were completely intertwined.  While I am sure not everyone working on the games agreed, the leadership of EA certainly did.  EA had complete control of Maxis, and now they decided to shut them down.

EA has been pulling the same anti-consumer moves with all of their games for years.  This wasn't something Maxis decided to do on their own.  I am not sure why you are so intent at blaming Maxis for something EA has been pursuing with all of their studios.