> But the audacity to call this a bug now feels very patronizing.

It was a bug, just not the one they want you to think.

> WhatsApp told WIRED that the notes (…) showed up in the pages because of a bug that has now been fixed.

The bug is that they “showed up”, not that they existed. I.e. the bug is that they were present in a way they got caught, they wanted them hidden.