From my perspective, "controlled and predictable" with Sinofsky was about managing the release cycle, hitting the dates. e.g. We said we're shipping in May, so we're shipping in May. That means careful planning and aggressive feature cuts if necessary. The goal was on time with high quality, where quality is measured in metrics like crash rate and bug count, not public opinion surveys.
Incremental releases and minimizing controversial changes might make releases more "controlled" in different ways, but those weren't the target.
[Edited for clarity]
For certain definitions of "controlled and predictable," yes. For others not so much. Sinofsky's tenure was also the era of the great push to turn Windows 8 into the one Windows to rule all devices, which resulted in it being the controversial, poorly-received product it has been. "Controlled and predictable" would have involved rolling out changes like moving to Modern/Metro/Windows-Style/etc. UI, removing the Start button, booting to the Start screen instead of the desktop, etc. slowly and incrementally, but Sinofsky bet instead on rolling them all out at once in a single "big bang" release. That was a big, risky bet that completely failed to pay off, and that MS has been retreating from step by step ever since his departure.