Re:A little dissapointed (Score 1)

this interview from april of this year with matt lasorsa of new line offers some explanations for why the extended edition got pushed to december:

Logically, it would seem that it could be done sooner, especially without another Lord of the Rings film to finish; however, that hasn't been the case. Peter Jackson was quite busy with many commitments during the awards season. Since he was away from New Zealand, he could not cut an extended version of the film. Traditionally, after he cuts the film, there are months and months of work to do to complete the cut - including Howard Shore's additional score and Weta Digital's new special effects.

For the special features, many of the interviews with the cast and crew were completed during pickups for the next film, as everyone was in the same place (New Zealand). Now that all filming is complete, everyone is scattered across the world - making it more difficult to get the interviews to create bonus materials.

It would have been ideal to release it sooner, but we didn't want to compromise the quality of the DVD to get the product in stores earlier.