No, I think everyone realizes that Stephenson sets up a bunch of cool things and then starts thinking, "Oh, crap, I only have fifty pages left-- must resolve-- ack!" Certain varieties of geek are happier than others to play with the shiny things along the way . . .

With Miéville, though, the problem was less that he needed another couple of drafts before deadline, and more that he had constructed a very tight plot with no room in it for the viewpoint character.