It seems way more likely that in the decision to go with a 64-bit CPU vs. 2 GB RAM, the pros outweighed the cons. I mean, who knows, but these kinds of decisions aren't made based on the simplistic criteria you're claiming they are. There are pros and cons (and benefits and compromises) to any engineering decision (and product design decision, and business decision, and marketing decision, etc. etc. etc.).

I could easily see a situation where a bunch of people were sitting around saying, "y'know, we don't absolutely positively NEED a 64-bit processor, but it doesn't cost much more and there might be some performance gains and if nothing else it might be a good bullet point for marketing. On the other hand, doubling the RAM will double what we pay for RAM, it won't help performance, and it will eat into the power budget, and it wouldn't make a good bullet point for marketing. The only downside is that denim_chicken will think we're being nefarious and will tell the world about it on HN."

I have no idea if that's what happened, but Occam's Razor suggests that it's more likely than the combination of pure evil and pure incompetence that you've been postulating here.