There is an enormous spectrum between "we cannot release some proprietary data from COTS components" and "we cannot release images without approval from our vendors".

(Not that I am convinced that this is the real reason why NASA is not releasing images quickly.)

Waiting for approval from vendors is a big difference from NASA reviewing the photos themselves, which was the original claim

I would find such a delay unacceptable for a public agency. Anything visible in the photos should be releasable.