Oh, I certainly think he played fast and loose with pitching WoT as a trilogy. And yes, when the plot grew out of control, there was no way to wrap things up in a single book 12. But his desire to write a traditional epic may have been at odds with what he was saying. Also, by CoT, he was under other pressures and such. WoT definitely got out of his control, and the whole write a true epic is just one fairly small part of what happened. But it's there, just enough to be a factor to consider.