i think the quote was stated "as of now", meaning as of the first season.
Exactly. In the first season, they didn't plan on making time travel a component of the show. Later, they changed their mind. That's making a story up as they go along.
If they'd had a plot sketched out for the entire series as of the first season (as opposed to making the show up as they went along) they'd have already known/decided that time travel was a factor and would be introduced later in the series and, presumably, wouldn't have said "there isn't any time travel."
