What lp wouldn’t be “stupid enough to do,” along with all the contractor and oversight checks and balances is build a unit too big to get through the clean room door. So if she wasn’t stupid enough to do that, why did they need to buy time?
There is another possibility.
The contractor, Fisk, replied to the ask for new features with a suggested design that was too large. NWBO knew this, but figured with more time they could shrink it. So they accepted the large prototype to test core functionality while Fisk was trying to find a way to shrink it. Alas, Fisk could not do so. So NWBO decided to go with the original design. And, as LP often does, just failed to pay Fisk for the work on the enhanced design.