Thanks to Xeno and others for the responses. (Notwithstanding the slight derail in the middle there)
Ultimately I think the publicity (even the bad stuff, believe it or not) has helped the game to some extent. It brings non-sim city franchise players to the table and even if the food smells a little funky they still kind of want a taste in some cases. With a clean launch and no press (bad or good) these non-franchise people never even get to the table.
Anyway, enough with the dinner-time analogies. I'll keep looking around for figures, especially after the close of the first-quarter earnings period and post them here. As for me personally, I'm biding my time and want to see how this all shakes out. The most recent development of being able to play offline entirely is pretty earth-shattering and EA/Maxis needs to address this ASAP.
Oh, and a good point by CaptCity above. There are more than enough threads about the game being good or not - I'm looking for more objective information. Stats, as it were.