You should have mentioned servers in your first post if that was your point.
I'm an offline guy (mostly) as well. I don't see any reason why the game's release should have been pushed back. Is waiting 20 seconds annoying? A little bit, but I take that time to check out what ever games on TV or take a drink, etc. Like you said... it's not a big deal.
As for online, well that's never been something that 2k has been particularly good at anyway. However, Madden and The Show had huge problems with their games online as well. At release both of them had huge problems with things such as games not registering and players for both had to wait on a patch or server side update. I suppose they should have been delayed as well?
Unfortunately, over the last 7-8 years I've had to wait on patches (for both online and offline modes) for the majority of the sports games that I've played, so this isn't something new. It's also something that I don't foresee changing anytime soon. It's just the nature of the beast. If someone doesn't like it I would suggest they wait a few months before purchasing, but most people don't have that kind of self-control or want to.