Here’s my guess what happened in the lead up to WWDC25:
Apple realized it was deep in the weeds with Apple Intelligence (and associated PR) and needed a tentpole feature that wasn't AI.
Liquid Glass was in development for some upcoming edgeless hardware. It needed another year of work, but management/marketing was fucked.
A thing that wasn't ready got moved up. Bug fixing took a back seat. Everyone grabbed paint brushes, not screwdrivers.
The next year is going to be rough for EVERYONE.