Actually the phone reports that the SoC model is an 8930, which is a Krait 200, pretty much the low-to-middle end of the Snapdragon 400 range, a range that Qualcom themselves describe as being "[d]esigned for mid-tier smartphones".

Well perhaps. But I don't think that simply disliking the specs race is sufficient reason to conceal the specs. On the other hand if you were producing a phone with specifications perhaps lower than your early target market (pre-orders) might be anticipating - particularly given the price point - and accepting that the specifications race is an unavoidable part of the market you are launching in to, you might also want to keep those specifications secret until the last possible moment to try to ensure that as many as possible of those pre-orders are turned into actual purchases.