No, hardening has nothing to do with it. They have a feature flag system deeply embedded in their software. And such systems can totally distribute different flags to different people. And that's how you could easily create VIP accounts with different behaviors than the rest of the world, like all ad festures turned off.
I guess it was simply too close to reality. That's why I didn't register that as humor. Text also doesn't carry tone of voice well, which makes confusion more likely
