It's stuff like this that makes me wish Notch would sit down and write out a design document for his games, and then stick to it.
What makes you think he didn't? Because Minecraft? the game he started on a whim as a technical demo and feature creeped its way to success? No assumptions that after forming a company with multiple people and at least one guy skilled in management they would have discovered the magic of design documents?
Still looking forward to the game because it's not minecraft, no matter how much people fear it is.
Because minecraft isn't just a game he started on a whim, it's a billion dollar unfinished mess that he works on by adding in cookies and NPC's that have no AI or purpose in the world. All those people at his company, with all their expertises, and none of them were like "hey Minecraft is pretty much our only source of income, maybe we should unbork it?"
It's pretty obvious that Mojang is a company formed around Notch, and what he wants to make and do. Minecraft was his pet project after he hired all those people and as such it was a case of whatever cool thing Notch saw taht week got half-assed into the game. This is his new pet project. I don't see him turning around and saying "hey guys, wanna come ruin my fun?!"
Also as far as I can remember (and I could be wrong) Minecraft was always intended to be a commercial game. I don't think it was ever some abstract tech demo? At least very very early on, like way before multiplayer, it was a game with a laundry list of "coming-soon" features.