If the comitee was waiting for some compiler implementors to catch up, i think we wouldn't be able to use new standards before they outdate.
The problem is not that compiler vendors do bad in implementing basic constructs, rather than there are hordes of programmers and companies, that implement new constructs on their own, resulting in a big mess of basically equivalent but incompatible proprietary extensions.
It's not only nessecary to do things like that in order to "save" the language from practical extinction, but to clear up the mess that evolved from everyone implementing missing features.
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If the comitee was waiting for some compiler implementors to catch up, i think we wouldn't be able to use new standards before they outdate. The problem is not that compiler vendors do bad in implementing basic constructs, rather than there are hordes of programmers and companies, that implement new constructs on their own, resulting in a big mess of basically equivalent but incompatible proprietary extensions. It's not only nessecary to do things like that in order to "save" the language from practical extinction, but to clear up the mess that evolved from everyone implementing missing features.