I made the call about a year ago, and mentioned it in several of the dozens of mailing list and on-wiki posts made about the development of VisualEditor since then. Clearly my communication about it wasn't read, or wasn't understood, by the people who subsequently complained, but I wouldn't describe it as being "done silently".
I guess the next question is what can we do to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again? I think everyone would have been a lot more calm if they had read and understood your communication in the months leading up to this.
Thank you, Derric Atzrott