the crew's hours start as soon as they report for the flight at the airport. So if you wanted your crew to go over their maximum allowed working hours mid-flight they would have shown up for the originally scheduled flight. Once they knew that there was a delay their procedure was to adjust the departure from their hotel accordingly. That they then ran into traffic is unfortunate, but I don't see how this is a KLM-Specific problem. Many airlines to my knowledge have similar problems and all airlines have to deal with work-rest hour regulations.

I just got off a flight from YYZ that was delayed to late inbound, boarding delayed because of late crew and then cargo couldn't get fastened. We landed an hour late. I'm not complaining because I got here.