When the Insight and Civic Hybrids flopped, someone in management decided it was because audiences really wanted Power not absolute-best economy. The result was an Accord V6 hybrid and a CRZ hybrid. They also upsized the insight and civic engines to gain more power, but loss of economy.
In my opinion it's basically a power struggle within Honda..... the managers or engineers in favor of hyper-MPG produced the 70 mpg insight and 50 mpg Civic during the 90s/early 2000s. When they failed to sell, those managers were discredited & other managers (or engineers) tookover development. The other managers produced "sport hybrids" from 2005 onward.
Those too failed. Now it appears the pendulum has swung back to the pro-MPG managers (so we got a 50mpg Accord I4).
In other words: Office politics. 
