Generally speaking, when a publisher mess up a game it's because they rush out the game on the market and release it unfinished and unpolished. Considering how long RAGE been in development, I don't really think that's the case here.
True. Zenimax seems to not be pushing RAGE very hard atall, certainly not in the same way that Activision is pushing CoD.
EDIT: Or would Bethesda be the company pushing RAGE?