Stop focusing on the money issue and read between the lines. Hollywood is as much politics as it is product, if not more. The budget excuse is just a convenient way to blame others for the delays without having to name names. If he came out and said "Joe Smith at XYZ Studio is being a pain in the ass" that would in turn alienate him from the people he's forced to collaborate with for certain elements of the process. As much as he wants to pretend he can do it all himself, he knows he can't, so until he's TRULY self sufficient, he still has to play in other people's sandboxes every now and then, and you don't do that by kicking that same sand in their faces.