I was pretty deep into Dungeons in its pre-release phase.
And the issue there was all with the devs. There was a specific type of RTS/Strategy game they like, and they pretty much refused to change their position on it. (And that's not unreasonble, you don't flip the script 1 year into development.)
The real reason it stung is because they knew the fanbase they were tempting, but they simply wouldn't do many of the things our expectations demanded.
Misguided implies they were going the right direction but something led them off track. IMO, they weren't heading the right direction from Day 1, for a game that is immediately getting compared to Dungeon Keeper 2. But all the other things surrounding the game concealed its core short comings until it was almost released. What people wanted was a serious dungeon sim. What they got was a dungeon theme park. It's funny, trying to play Dungeons like Dungeon Keeper 2 is actually one of the most ineffective ways to play the game, according to how it's built. Sad.
I really harped on people to judge the game based on its own merits, and not in comparison to DKII.....but after 16 hours its merits were pretty shallow. Visually and in terms of your imagination, it did alright as a sim. But it lacked any interesting mechanics aside from the heroes.