A large part of me sees this as possible incompetence; a smaller part could see it as well-orchestrated damage control.
'Oh, look at what we (took away and then at the trailing-edge of the news cycle) gave you (back) for free!' (*Throws blanket on 970 mess, kicks some dirt over it*).
If it smells like drumming up positive PR because right now their public image is on fire, it probably is.
I mean, doesn't the most-likely scenario seem that this was disabled because at some point they probably decided (perhaps just recently) that they are going to repackage and sell these chips with higher clocks (or something different but performance within overclocking range) as a newer generation? Maybe that's me being cynical, but nvidia is the type of company where cynicism often is the right approach.
When they say they spend countless time perfecting an experience, they mean countless time perfecting a product's placement; both now and in the future. If/when they realize their next series isn't going to make it's date (be that 14/16nm etc) they still need a product, and vicariously this reversal could be done because a new product has been decided upon that will not be effected by these chips ability to overclock.
I respect all ya'lls opinion if you don't agree, but this company has proven itself continuously so goddamn shady it's hard to think this is genuine 'remorse' due to consumer outcry. Everything they do is very well-planned and always about dat green. They are, and always have been, the marketing masters of the tech world...almost apple-like in their half-truth/manipulation/mind-game/means-to-an-end tactics.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn't put this being a stunt (on conceivably multiple levels) past them (to attempt to create good will), if not, like I said, something to do with a rejigger of how future products are placed. If I'm giving them too much credit for being evil geniuses, then we're back to incompetence...not unlike the (and I'm incredibly sorry I'm bringing it up) 970 debacle.
I don't see how this paints nvidia any better than how many saw them yesterday other than this conveniently gives them something to point to when people criticize the 970 situation. They can point to this as how they were more after-sale consumer friendly...obviously phrased in a way where they look like heroes and take no responsibility for customers getting less than they initially had or expected from their products.
The way I see it, up until recently nvidia has generally been extremely cunning in their anti-consumer tactics (including but not limited to: sli on amd chipsets until 2011 when they stopped making chipsets, crossfire on nvidia chipsets ever, AA for unreal engine being locked out from amd, gameworks coding non-transparency, physx support [including mixed cards] when an amd card is detected, Project Greenlight [which limited 680 so they could milk people with 770 for example] amongst COUNTLESS others I could list over the years pertaining to what should be vendor-agnostic sofrware or simply use of their own hardware) with plausible-enough excuses for certain choices. Only because of the insane amount of coverage concerning the last couple debacles (mobile gsync included) have the vast public stood up and taken notice, while outspokeningly rejecting it. nVIDIA can (now) try as they may, but there just ain't no putting the cork back in the bottle...they pushed their hand a little too far and now more people are rightly watching every decision they make and how they present it to the world.
The most important thing about all of this is that that large crowd (known as their current and potential customers) is now loudly and collectively calling them on their bullshit. I don't know wither to applaud those that have spoken and continue speaking out on these issues and impacts they make (ie the guy that found the mem problem, those that tested stutter, those that checked playable settings differences on laptops), the press for reporting it (granted preferably not the same story 7 times), or just say it's about damn time this issue of how they conduct their business came to the forefront, rather than just splintered across the web mixed with fanboy/crackpot complaints buried in comments sections and forum posts.
