BW/EA did drop the ball. They underestimated how selfish and nonunderstanding their userbase was going to be. No fault of theirs.

You gave them money to play on the 20th. The EGA was just the possibility of an added bonus. I remember a certain other extremely popular MMO that did a one-day launch. Once those floodgates opened: disaster all around. Dying servers, rollbacks, crowdedness, uneven population, etc. This staggering is a blessing, trust me. I'm sorry you don't see it that way, but perhaps you should try looking at it from a different point of view.