I've a feeling that we'll get a figurine of Hinata in her wedding lingerie soon...don't want to have that happen, but if those bed pillows are any indication...
Anyway, yes it's impossible to tell EXACTLY what was going on behind the scenes of the manga. For all we know maybe Kishimoto really is that crazy. I do recall for a fact he wanted to end the manga shortly after the Pain arc, and apparently he didn't want a timeskip to begin with. Again with the Kobiyashi interview, he pretty much confessed most of the manga's content was the brainchild of his editor, not him. I think that more than anything was disappointing.
I'll say in defense of most of what happened in the War Arc, the ideas did have merit and potential. Unfortunately, nothing came together perfectly or cohesively. It was just a mess, plain and simple. To make the ideas throughout the manga stick, it needed to cut at least a third of them to develop the most important ones.