And people wants more years of this. Ha!
Hurry up Nintendo! Release Fusion and destroy third parties! Show them you are the boss.

The implication was that it was playable. A constant or maximum 23 fps is not playable. I can't see how anyone would be happy with such a framerate. Even if the other versions were not optimized, I'm sure they were playable upon being ported to the system. Most games tend to be. I think it is delusional and deceptive to say the "the actual console itself is quite good" and talk about graphical features that might not even be able to run in the final release. That isn't being honest, that is hyping support for your game before you are sure you can deliver. There is a reason why many developers keep quiet about their games, and I think that is something this particular developer is learning now. 

This is very true. On the one hand, it's really unfortuate that developers have to be extremely careful with their words or remain completely silent about development for fear of backlash if plans change or they can't deliver. On the other hand, when a game is early in development and so far from release you should keep your publically stated ambitions in check.

Dude. Uncharted 4 is targeting 60fps correct? Currently it hovers around 40fps (67% of the target), they can still aim for 60 or cap it at 30 if they hit a brick wall. PCars was supposed to be 720p30 on the Wii U from day one, currently its stuck at 23fps (76% of their target). Unlike Uncharted they cant say lets lock this to 30fps(15fps) and call it a day. They thought they could optimise the game further, but they cant. From my understanding not even devs have clear cut specifics on the Wii Us GPU and they all have to make estimations. Its a shame that Tachikoma isnt here to clarify but I distinctly remember that being said, everything is trial and error with the system. (will find source)

"the actual console itself is quite good"

Also, every dev has been saying similar things about the PS4 and XB1 even though those consoles fell short of their initial expectations too.

23fps isn't actually bad. There are plenty of 360 and PS3 games that hover around this. However for a racing game it ruins the control and responsiveness which is why they aren't happy to put it out. It could still look very good especially in replays. 

I think if he just tailored his language to, "we are trying" or "we would like to" rather than definite words like "will" people wouldn't feel so entitled for a release on Wii U. Furthermore, such claims were directed toward inquiries about the status of the game: whether or not it is not being worked on Wii U yet, how far it is in development, and what is the potential future. A truly honest statement is that they have plans to bring the game to Wii U, but really haven't done much with those plans beyond just porting the code to the system. They have hefty goals, and likely only will want the game to release if such hefty goals can be met. Instead people see something like, "And the actual console itself is quite good." and they are reassured that this developer is saying that with proper experience and sincerety. The honesty issue isn't one of lieing to other people, but rather the developer lieing to themselves on the extent of their practical knowledge of how they can achieve said goals and the certainty of it. 

For a racing simulator I think that is generally considered quite below average. 

There is a big difference between saying, "I'm satisfied with the game's progress" when it is running at 40 fps and when it is running at 23 fps. Other than screen tearing 40fps isn't that bad as far as how smoothly the game runs, and like you noted one can lock it to 30 fps. Meanwhile 23 fps is quite noticeable AND still has the same tearing issues. I can't imagine anybody saying, "this is good" and we have all of these effects too. A reasonable developer would say something like, it is a good start, but we really need to get it to 30 fps and then we can see what we can do about image quality/resolution/AA by optimizing the code. A reasonable developer also doesn't say such empty promises when inquired with regards to the viability of the Wii U's release unless he/she is certain of it. 

Ian has said that they can achieve the 30fps but they nee a heavy optimization work. "And financials comes into this"