The way software companies create hard deadlines that they absolutely can hit is by setting the deadline weeks later than they expect they will probably have it ready.
If they felt they had to create a deadline that they absolutely would not miss, they would have announced it as the mid-to-late-March patch, not the February patch. They do this when distribution and logistics need to have a firm date months in advance, e.g. for a product launch.
Personally, for patches like this, I'd much rather have them give us a rough estimate that they might miss but get the patch as soon as it's ready than have them artificially hold it if it's ready early so that they won't miss a date. I'd rather have their best available info that might turn out to be wrong.
If they felt they had to create a deadline that they absolutely would not miss, they would have announced it as the mid-to-late-March patch, not the February patch. They do this when distribution and logistics need to have a firm date months in advance, e.g. for a product launch.
Personally, for patches like this, I'd much rather have them give us a rough estimate that they might miss but get the patch as soon as it's ready than have them artificially hold it if it's ready early so that they won't miss a date. I'd rather have their best available info that might turn out to be wrong.