I think it's more likely that the iTunes software was just immature at that point.

What you're describing is a nice side effect of that for Apple, but the reality is they're not going to do the bitch work of importing all those songs from a hodge podge of whatever formats they're given. They didn't have a better tool available at that time to make their catalog consistent.

It's very believable that Apple felt enough urgency to rush this phase.