I think it boils down to coinbase being overwhelmed with the level at which they are scaling, leading to them having insufficient time and resources available to properly manage the business.

That would be a fine explanation in 2013 perhaps, not 2017.

There is no excuse for this type of screw up, but I dont think there was anything malicious going on from the Coinbase/Gdax side.

Yeah, I agree. But if they couldn't get their act together in this eternity of time in crypto, I wonder how bad they'll screw up after some hypothetical IPO.