An important factor is that the new touch is not exactly the same as the Pandora one. It is only the same material and type, but different dimensions. So it is not a "just take it from stock". It has to be (re)designed to fit and minimum order quantities apply.
There are three options to get an LCD with touch screen:
a) look for complete touch LCD modules, test them and choose the best one.
b) look for an LCD and ask the vendor to glue a good touch on it, test it and ask for improvements if needed.
c) buy LCDs here and Touch there and have a third partner to glue them together. Test and think about improvements yourself and manage the communication and shipment of parts.
a) would be the most hassle-free approach, but did not give any results.
c) is complex and risky for fingerpointing (who is responsible if the production lot is not as good as in the samples?).
Therefore b) was chosen.
But the best touch the vendor could finally provide from his subcontractors was still not good enough. Hence we finally suggested to test the panel from the Pandora which was new to them.
So the only oversight can be the hidden assumption that the LCD vendor can easily provide an equally good touch panel because they are doing that every day.
IMHO time and money has not been lost (at least no ED's) since the last component that is available determines production start.
