That's my take on it too - that Airbus won't go and create a competitor to the long-haul 7E7, as they seem to belive the A332 will do the job just fine, but rather a competitor to the short-haul version. Coincidentially, or not as the case might be, Airbus got a gap in their product line-up there, as others have pointed out. If they can make a model that'll also work as a freighter, as opposed to the 7E7, that's just one more selling point.
Otherwise it might just be Airbus using Boeing tactics, i.e. trying to steal some of the 7E7 sunlight by proposing something a bit different - like Boeing did with the Cronic Snoozer vs the A380. Politics certainly plays a large part in this game.
No (or very little) heavy maintenance on the 7E7? Have they found the holy grail?