If a direct route is all that mattered, then the ION phase 2 extension wouldn't be worth building. The amount of transit demand in Preston and Galt today is nowhere near what would be needed to justify it. The only way this makes sense if the extension is about city-building. Preston has some redevelopment potential but would likely fight hard against their relatively narrow main street losing its on-street parking for LRT (and certainly against a residential side street alignment); Galt's core is in a flood plain and not easy to do much redevelopment in. Hespeler Road is a blank slate. Again, the Region of Waterloo is quite serious about urbanization, being ahead of provincial targets and having had to fight the OMB to prevent sprawl.
The current iXpress 200 route travels down Hespeler Road, and in my (limited) experience Cambridge Centre (mall and minor bus terminal) is perhaps as busy as the Ainslie Street Terminal in Galt. Pretty sure the route is busier than the 52, which travels along the direct corridor.
I mean, you can disagree with the reasoning, but assuming that this plan is "violent towards transit users" or that it's corrupt is just laughable.