The price was too high? I bet you there is +500,000 hours of development for $120??!?!? Plus support, online services, and free updates?
To paraphrase NWFresh - That's amazing value. Even if I break it down per hour played; I'm looking at pennies my cost.
Are there issues then and now? - Yes
Can the game get better? - Yes
Is the game a failure? - No: Its an amazing game, great value, super fun.
To make it clear I'm talking about just AA.
Fans of the franchise will purchase it, that is a given but pricing (39 euros) a small amount of SP content (AA) and not including the MP isn't an attractive offer for potential customers and thus has put people off.
And then having to purchase 2 extra versions of the game just to access the MP armies isn't ideal, especially when the COH2 vanilla (is still 34 euros) campaign wasn't that high quality.
COH2 can indeed survive by just relying mostly on its fanbase but to attract new customers a complete package is better.