I think that the time wasting is a considered extra decision that they have made. I have long thought that Inno are panicking about the balance of the game and the money they might lose introducing Royal Restoration. They made a sweeping promise a long time ago and they know that they can't easily back out of it now (they've tried at least twice to push out really bad versions of RR). I think that the reality is that they hadn't counted on people saving up such huge stockpiles of blueprints when they said what they said, so with the initial offer, way back when, some players will be able to instantly upgrade everything on their map and in their inventories, meaning they have no need to participate in events and spend more diamonds.
So... it seems this is attempt number three to slow this kind of progress. It is better than the previous two attempts, but it's still quite deceptive compared to their initial outlining of Royal Restoration. The clever thing (for them) about this plan, is it doesn't matter how many blueprints a person has, they will still need to save up combining catalysts to use them... and on top of it all they will have to wait for the right craftable item to come around, as everyone says.