Was Batman hitting Tim always the "plan"?

Because something isn't adding up with this one.

King is saying that Batman--the genius that knows multiple languages and codes--can only communicate through violence in that scene. That he taught his Robins to read his meaning this way. Which--as someone else pointed out--is dumb when you consider how the family acted to how Cass was trained.

Some have stated that this is King clearly backpedaling after fan backlash while others believe this is all part of his plan. So either he didn't consider the implications but wanted unneeded drama or he did plan this and wanted to just put this nonsense in for drama. Either way he never intended for Bruce to deal with the fall out or actually be in the wrong.

Here's the thing that gets me: he already had a code he could use that every bat family member knew. In Grayson they made a big deal out of Cluemaster's code. It was used more than once and the family used it to outsmart a spy organization. Whatever his intent was King obviously didn't think this one through.