So let's talk about some basic project management.
In any given project, you have three main factors influencing how it is completed, time (release date), scope (features) and resources (budget). When you start a project, in this case, a game, you're going to create your project plan with all three in mind. Basically, with X budget, we can release a game with Y features on Z release date. However, project plans never go perfectly, and chances are that things will occur that will push your completion date back.
This is where the project managers need to make decisions about the project. They can either push back the release date, or cut features or run over their budget (overtime, more staff, etc) to release on time. Depending on the company, the priorities can vary. With something like Assassin's Creed, which Ubisoft seems dedicated to releasing a game every year, chances are that they aren't going to budge on the date, so they're either going to have to cut features or increase the budget of the project. Blizzard and Valve on the other hand, are uncompromising on their project scopes, and aren't willing to dilute their talent pool by mass hiring to get projects out the door, so they are most flexable on time.
To go back to the Assassin's Creed analogy, let's say you're making AC3 and for whatever reason, you find yourself in a situation where you aren't going to make your Q4 release window. Ubisoft is going to come down on you like a ton of bricks if that game isn't on the shelves by Christmas, so you're stuck either cutting features, or increasing the budget.
If you cut features, you're going to find yourself with a bunch of assets that you've paid people to create, but cannot ship with the game. This is wasted money, so you can't just throw them away, but at the same time, it will cost you more money still to get them into playable form. In the meantime, your staff is too busy getting the game ready to ship to do anything about them, so they'll have to be something you deal with once the game has gone gold. Thus, you put them in the DLC bin, and use the money from them to recoup their cost. A good example of this is how Gearbox is handling the new class for Borderlands 2.
The other scenario is similar. If you want that content ready to ship with the game, you start paying people overtime, bring on temps, and basically pay for the additional hours of work needed to get the content ready for launch. However, you've now exceeded your budget and your boss isn't happy. You need to recoup your costs, so either this content, or something else, gets paired out and released as DLC to help make up for the extra costs the project has incured. This helps explain some on-disc DLC.
In some cases too, people just get greedy and compromise the product to make an extra buck. The point of this is, DLC is done for very practical purposes, not become some moustached villain in management is wringing his hands and caclking as he devises new ways to pull one over on the hapless consumer.
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