They aren't admitting that their product is subpar, to the contrary, many are holding it up as the best game this gen, I know its not seen that way around here (and complaints are legitimate), the reviewers have spoken and the game has been received well.
All they are doing here is trying to sell copies of the game now instead of losing sales at the front end and possibly not getting them back on the backend.
There are several people who won't be picking up the game, not because they won't enjoy it but because they are going to be picking up the game when it releases on next-gen. That affects their sales figures, and of the people that say they will pick it up on Next-Gen there is no guarantee that they will actually pick it up on Next-Gen (if they make it to November without it they may decide they can make it until next August if the reviews are less than stellar). This way they can get those who are itching to play the new game but planned on holding out until Next-Gen, to buy it now. EA still sells 2 games.
Don't read into it any further than that, EA is not the only company doing this, a lot of companies are trying to get people to pick up the current-gen versions instead of waiting until next-gen version.