I've been ranting and nagging about this since the start of the beta, even started several threads here about it. Nobody gave a shit.
And suddenly, out of the blue, everyone wanted it after AmiPolizeiFunk wrote that piece of art. Some people even condemned Relic for not having this in the game since day one even though they probably didn't write a single word here or elsewhere requesting this feature.
It's all in the delivery, I guess. As much as the Internet (and seemingly this game

) brings it out in people, 'ranting and nagging' simply isn't attractive. A carefully constructed and presented argument on the other hand, can be.
Also, the timing of WFA armies probably helped substantially. It's made it a vastly more interesting game IMHO, even if such a major addition will need some significant ongoing polish to deal with the intracacies of bugs and balance. People did criticise COH2 for how conventional its two initial armies were. I didn't really understand what they were complaining about at the time, but now it's hard for me to go back to Ost and Sov.