Let's take a look at the background of this project [1].

Project announced in 2007 during former PM Badawi administration, opened on 2018, after 11 years since the announcement.
Modeled after KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur.
The entire project was divided into eight phases, of which the second, third and fourth phases comprised a shopping complex, three office blocks and a 36-storey hotel respectively.
Project awarded to Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) and Perlaburan Hartanah Bumiputera Berhad.
**Veritas Architects was put in charge of the design works. **

3 major pieces:
Main building is owned by MRCB.
Butterworth station is owned by KTMB.
Ferry Terminal is owned by Prasarana.

The project suffered repeated delays. Land acquisition became the main stumbling block, as the parcels of land earmarked for the development were owned by several parties, namely the Malaysian federal government, the Penang state government, highway concessionaires and Keretapi Tanah Melayu, the national railway operator. As a result, construction of Phase 1 of Penang Sentral only began in earnest in 2015.

I can see why the delay and disconnect or even disagreement on the entire design but the decision maker could possibly went ahead and all stake holders worked in silos. Penang state government and the federal government has always been on disagreement, just see the unnecessary second bridge that nobody uses.

I looked up Veritas Design Group at Linkedin, select the 'People' tab, and scroll to the right and look at 'Where they studied' [2]. What do you think, is that 'that bad' ?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang_Sentral
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/company/veritas-design-group/people/