I really can only speculate about the question what exactly they believed or what strategy is behind.
Regarding the price: It's not that they don't want it to rise. It's more that they don't need that. If we think it this way: 1 NEU = 1 Dollarcent, the Crypto-User (like we are here) would like to see it rise... if it would go to 2 cent it would be 100% in profit about the price.
But: What the Neu-Group would see: More demand and they would meet that demand. They would sell, so the price wouldn't rise much. I believe that's also the reason they've chosen the 100%-interest-rate. The Investor shouldn't think about profit in price, but profit in interest rate. With other words: The price could stay the same, because if there is growing demand the Neu-Group will sell into it, but if you stake you make about 100% profit in supply in 1 year or more because of compound interest.
Strategy regarding price? Here:
- Coin prices should be less volatile and remain intuitive for consumers from launch ($0.01 per NeuCoin) and into the future

Each year, the foundations goal is to sell sufficient NeuCoins through private sales or exchanges to fund the following years cash needs. However, when NeuCoin prices rise, the foundations may sell additional coins, with the excess cash obtained kept as a rainy day reserve. When prices fall, fewer (or zero) coins will be sold.