I am a huge believer in Quality Assurance & Polish. Whatever happens, Obsidian is one of my favorite game developers (PST, IWD, IWD2, MoTB), but they clearly know they can do better here as they are equated with buggy games. I absolutely loved MoTB, but couldn't play SoZ because of the freaking loading screens (late at night I kept falling asleep ).
Obsidian's name is going to be defined by this game. No publisher's to blame, no timeframe to blame. Having worked with development teams and told quality couldn't improve, I have had first hand experience on our latest (and biggest project) that this is not true. Quality is culture driven and has to be baked in day 1, starting with development, tools, measurement, etc. it can be achieved, even within a limited timeframe.
Having said that, I am so excited about this game and can't wait for Obsidian to knock this out of the park!