From today's perspective, it sure seems like it, probably because increased capabilities have generated a new kind of danger. Back then, they were worried about stuff like the model telling me dangerous knowledge.

I certainly think the labs have muddied the waters using safety for marketing, but that doesn't mean less capable models weren't more dangerous at one point.

Extremely weak justification on their part, bordering on trolling. It's just marketing.

Easy access to malicious information hasn't proven to be the disaster these anti-prophets proclaim. For the last ~3 decades of widespread internet and search engines, you could trivially find all sorts of information (drug synthesis, explosives, etc.), and we're just fine.

(Corollary: easy access to good information did not make non-intellectual non-curious people smarter. Easy access to information does not have the consequences people immediately assume.)