Why wasn't the CEO standing in front of his team 90 days later, saying "In the past 90 days, you have done the impossible." instead?

Why wasn't the CEO, and the team, convinced because of their grasp on the situation and the mutual respect for every team member's capability and ability that they could pull it off in the first place?

Good "impossible" work is best seen in retrospect, when it is obvious that it shouldn't have worked, or that very few could have pulled it off, but by gum we managed. It is part of the CEO's mission to be frank with her troops, and this involves calling impossible things out, but it can act as a de-motivator just as well.

Even if you're not phased by working on something supposedly "impossible", what are the odds that it removes some of that drive from one of the 85 people, that she gives a little less than everything she has and then concludes at the first (or last) opportunity that "oh well, we did agree this was impossible, so I suppose we'd just need more time"?