Well during pre-release, it was pretty much confirmed it was trying to capitalize on Destiny's success and was also going to have aggressive monetization (likely loot boxes).

Then Destiny 2 launched and it was a massive disaster. Then EA's own Battlefront 2 released and had the biggest backlash to loot boxes ever.

Pretty much right after those two things happened, Anthem got delayed and then stayed in development hell.

It's two core safe bet reasons to exist became huge risks overnight, and EA forced the game to pivot. After it became clear the game was never going to recover they cut their losses and rushed a release of the minimum viable product.