(1) Maybe this is a negotiating ploy. Maybe Verizon and Motorola are at a stalemate and one just said, "Well, we'll just cancel the device altogether", to try and force the other's hand. For instance, I could see Verizon saying that they want 1GB of RAM versus the 512MB, and Motorola's not budging on it. So, Verizon says they'll just cancel the device to try and force Motorola to cave.
Verizon and anyone that complains about the RAM is blind. The 512mb in the Bionic is DDR2 so its comparable to 1024mb normal RAM.