And they sat on it and didn't update it, while Canon surpassed their design and Sony went from not even having an interchangeable-lens camera to becoming a full-fledged competitor to Canon and Nikon.
Now, the Canon 11-24 and Sony 12-24 are king of the UWAs and the Nikon 14-24, which was so sharp on the 12MP sensors of the day, is now a sorry-looking lens with blurry corners (but still basically no coma) on the current 42-50MP sensors.
Stagnation never helped anyone. Just look at Canon - Canon's sensor weakness is largely responsible for Sony's existence as a camera (as opposed to a sensor) company. Nikon should have updated this lens five years ago.