I haven't spoken with PU (or anyone else there), but none of this should be surprising to anyone familiar with major events.
The one race minimum is a pretty standard thing for most events in general, helps with Murphy.
If you look more carefully at the Olympic docs (NOR and SIs), it's pretty obvious that they really wanted a minimum of 6 races for the "opening series" leading into the medal race. They are willing to extend all schedules until this is met, and have provisions in case it can't be met.
With a major wind shift part way through the race, you either do nothing, abandon it, shorten it, or change the course. At this level of the game, decisions are not typically made without consulting with the Olympic reps, judges, etc.
Since they were past the 6 race minimum (implied), there was no compelling reason to continue the race, if shortening or changing were not feasible (due to the location of the front and back of the fleet, etc.).
