Yes...it was...
It was indeed a massive fail...of Samsung's.
The most reported cause of the truly troubled phones (not those that just failed to update, and were fixed by powering off and back on - which was the most common problem) by those who actually studied the fault have all been pointing towards certain firmware versions for the devices...particularly those ones designed for the mobile networks specifications - like T-Mobile UK, whose bootloader is locked to make sure you can't update it yourself, you have to take it to someone with the right jig (I built one), ie a repair centre or store, and pay money to get them to do the update.
My Omnia 7 updated without the slightest hitch because I updated my firmware to a non-T-Mobile branded proper version.