Just to follow up on Task's point, the very first screenshot on IGN from 4th of April 2007 features Mirage prominantly. Other shots from that date feature Auricom. The first teaser trailer features Edgewinter track.

Now, we can't know whether they were finished or not. Quite likely not for the tracks (but, again, that's speculation) but there is no doubt some elements were in advance stages and I can't imagine that the ships weren't well finished given that Mirage and Auricom actually look the most finished of the craft back from April of last year. That's enough to disprove your point.

From that point, things get a little conflicted. The later trailer clearly lists the amount of tracks you get and the amount of teams that come with Pulse and, as I stated, for the price of Pulse I think there is loads there and it's very good value. There is tons of game for the price. But then the official site lists all the teams as if standard, and has done from the European launch. And, of course, the in-game advertising implies the teams are all present and correct (this is unlike Pure which added th new team ads when the packs began to become available - a far cleaner way of doing it if the packs are being paid for). So it's easy to see how people would think the teams at least should be standard.

But then I think the biggest issue is simply the price. Yeah, some people expect content for free but I think, if these packs were a good bit cheaper, there would be far fewer complaints.