As discussed recently on IRC, I repeat me once more stating that not including something that might really improve the user experience with no drawbacks of any kind is rather unwise. Deadlines are put there to stabilize the software, not to block any kind of development. Besides, as it has been mentioned on numerous ocasions that the so-called “freeze” does not affect artwork. With this logic, you shouldn't even be able to commit new icons, just because they might not look as good as the other ones, or some user might complain.
Come on, let's get reasonable. The theme has been showcased on my blog and received quite a lot of positive user feedback. Additionally, the KDE artists as well as KDE accessibility experts, who no doubt are well versed in this topic have evaluated the theme, and found it very good in terms of artwork, and usability. 
Others may not even have been able to seen it yet(because the final design has been finalized this month), even though although the theme itself has always been developed publicly. And we've especially designed them to be perfectly suitable for long term usage, sometimes even sacrificing some beauty.
Now, why the user shouldn't get these goodies? Sure, someone might not like it, but I just want to point out that the perfect artwork simply does not exist. Our effort of not boring users with something that cannot be seen for more than a couple of months is also the reason about why we're shipping a white cursor theme, instead of something shinier (and trust me, something shinier exists, check the other colors).
Someone might think that Oxygen icons are shit. So be it, they are free to choose another theme. We're not forcing anyone. It's just something that improves the overall user experience with no drawbacks of any kind!
Deadlines are a good thing, and I respect them, think that they're very useful, and that asking for exceptions is not something we should do.
But the point is, I'm not asking for one! This is artwork! It doesn't introduce any kind of regressions, it cannot harm at all! What could go wrong? Stabilizing (and translating) is the whole point of deadlines, please don't forget it.