What are the reports you are referring to?
well...its been a few years...but if i remember correctly:
the "mountain", Coaster, and yeti were all built on seperate solid foundations to allow for them to move independently from the stress of the ride, the AA, and the support structure.
It seemed like a great design idea.
But very quickly after the ride opened...the yeti started going wrong. supposedly its movement caused so much sheer that it actually cracked the concrete foundation and the mechanical system was in danger of ripping itself apart.
Now of course WDW isn't releasing this kind of negativity to the public at a character meet and greet. but alot of the issues, combined with the obvious failures and repair problems with the yeti itself...seem to mesh pretty well.
What we do know is that the yeti was "outsourced" to a new company that very quickly went bankrupt a short time later.
Disney did tout this fact before they knew they had a problem. by using WDI for "artistic" purposes, vekoma for the ride system, and (the company's name escapes me) for building the yeti. It was cheapskate synergy in practice...something disney strives for each day.
so we know where this went wrong...but it seems like the problems are too big to fix. They can't take it offline indefinitely - its barely a park right now as is...
perhaps, if they do the right thing and expand the park...then a missing rollercoaster won't be such a big deal...but those days are way in the future if at all