I seriously doubt fans wanting recap is the real reason.
If anything, most fans didn't want recap, they wanted episodes to come faster.
The real reason behind recaps is, simply because they were behind schedule, and being the perfectionist Taniguchi is, he didn't want to toss an entire episode to gross-work (subcontracted studio to do animation) like most anime shows do, and reduce quality.
It's hard to decide which is better... having the main studio do all of it to keep quality up, but having to wait a long time to see the rest... or accepting low-quality gross-work just so the anime can finish as scheduled.
Most anime companies take the latter approach, but some directors are stubborn.
