I doubt Intel's partners would be happy about the delay, not least system builders and the retail channel.
Why would any of them care?
Without there being any public release dates there are no expectations. The only reason any of them
should care is it whatever the reason it required them to do something other than sit on what they have.
Then again, AMD had their own delays, so ...<shrug/>?
AMD had already announced release dates and then at the last minute changed things, didn't immediately give a new date and then ended up staggering the release. These situations are absolutely not the same thing.
You say it's irrelevant, but if they indeed hit last-minute delays of ~2 weeks, that's troubling. It's bad for AMD to do that, but even worse for Intel (being bigger and having gone through these motions even more times). I wonder if we'll get any insights into the reasons for it. I'm still wondering about that 20A-cancellation news.
People expected LNL to be available on launch and then surprise it wasn't. Companies do this all the time and rarely does the public know why. The benefit with ARL is that Intel hasn't set any specific expectations regarding the release. Bumping things for such a short period of time is rarely anything particularly bad so it could be as simple as giving time for additional stock to make its way out.