Yeah that's exactly how I see it, too. I think Konami figured out how they hard to treat this guy in order to get him to finish a project. Eccentric artists need to be reigned in sometimes, or they end up getting way too far out there.
I always equate it to M. Night Shyamalan back when he left Disney. He left because they gave him honest criticism about his script for Lady in the Water. They just didn't understand it. So Night just up and left, and went and made Lady in the Water....an incoherent mess of a film. I get the impression Death Stranding is gonna be Kojima's Lady in the Water.
EDIT:
For anybody that wants to see what I mean, check out this vid. It's really good. And if you watch this with Kojima in mind, you will see how many parallels there are between M. Night and Kojima (there are a LOT!). They both have the same main issue....ego.