It was EA,They tested what people are willing to buy.The Prothean was an integral part of the story and they made you pay or pre order in order to see his story.
Disgruntled employee's aired their concerns and posted story boards for what is to come.I tend to believe it,stuff was leaked and it ended up to be in the game.If you google you will find it.EA is just a giant grinder,they buy the company,grind the shit out of all their idea's,take the best that company has to offer for themselves and discard the dried desiccated husk that we called Bioware.
They done it with DICE(Battlefield) and Visceral games(Dead Space) to name a few.