I suspect the issue is that in order to be DRM-free, the game has to be playable off the disc without any further patching. But that means that, if the disc is to be delivered on time, it will need to be manufactured with a v0.9-ish version of the game that might be obsolete by the time the game launches. Thus the disc (which is the most likely copy for early pirate-wannabes to get) might still be buggy, which could lead to morons people complaining about bugs that have actually been fixed it legitimate copies of the game.
This could all be avoided if the game disc cannot be run without