TranZit Is Overhated
Most people, for good reason, think TranZit is a horrible map. What they don't know is that it was console limitations that ruined it. The most common feature people will criticize is the fog. It slows you down and punishes you for not trapping yourself in a metal coffin to go from place to place. The fog wasn't actually a feature planned from the start. TranZit was just such a huge map that consoles wouldn't be able to handle how fast the map loaded if you ran around it with Stamin-Up. Most of the criticized features were actually not planned at first. TranZit really was on track to be one of the greatest Zombies maps in its early development.
There was also this idea to only make TranZit be destroyed if you completed the Moon easter-egg. I assume that was scrapped due to being forced to add the fog, and due to the logistics of forcing a small amount of players into a version of a map that others couldn't access unless they owned another game and DLC.
Pictured above is a recreation of the original map layout. No lava, no fog, and all of the locations you know still there. Pictured below is the leaked image this was sourced from.
An extra note: remember how the map selector is the entire Earth yet there are so few maps? The Zombies Chronicles DLC was actually intended for BO2 but, as you know, got pushed back to BO3.
Die Rise actually had a similar problem to TranZit. I feel like it's safe to say it'd be a decent map if it wasn't for all of the fall damage making it so hard to get around. Die Rise was built around PHD Flopper being an accessible perk. Then it was decided that PHD Flopper would be "too overpowered" and it was removed. You can actually see the perk's machine for a fraction of a second when you go down the first elevator. I'm sure Zielinski regretted this though, as the failure of TranZit and Die Rise basically guaranteed he would lose his job.
Don't worry though, things didn't always go this horribly for the Zombies team. In the case of Kino Der Toten, limitations may have made zombies as popular as it is today. Kino was very clearly meant for World At War, all of the visuals and mechanics fit perfectly. And for most people Black Ops 1 was their introduction to zombies. Could you imagine how many people would've never gotten into zombies if Five was the only map they could play? Kino being a Black Ops 1 map made for a great introduction to zombies with a map that wasn't too hard and wasn't painfully easy.
In conclusion free my boy Zielinski and zombies will be good again.