"This just reads like marketing imo."

You could be right, but I don't see being caught off guard as the kind of praise you seem to think it fosters for Apple. If I were in marketing I would be looking for a message that showed Apple in more of a leading, not following, position.

"oh my garsh this asinine $900 thing is so good at local AI even we didn't expect it! I bet it'll be sold out any moment!"

The way you get people to believe a lie is to put just a bit of truth in it. The way you get people to accept marketing as not-marketing is to put just enough not-marketing in it.