It most certainly was to blame. A crazy system (a chain of people) for a thing that didn't need any system in the first place. Abiko and GAO could have talked face to face from the beginning, or chat to chat, but instead those paper-pushers had to be between them for no reason but to employ themselves. The men-and-women-in-the-middle ended up ruining the whole thing, yet it was other people who are bearing the consequences and suffering.