Premier delivered the album Nas wanted. No outside forces made Nas put this out. He could have reworked it or shelved it with no consequence. Some fans don't like the direction, but that's every Nas album since Illmatic
The Kanye album was a way to close out the Def Jam deal. There was a label deadline. That was recorded in like a week over skeleton beats, Kanye ain't hold up his end and they had to finish the album on the way to the release party. A lot of shyt was outside his control on that one.