What is more telling for me is that Apple has cut off all contracts with the company involved and will have nothing more to do with them - despite their denial.
They cut off contact for a separate reason - 2000 (IIRC) supermicro boards which did have issues.
If they wanted to cut ties for a different reason, execs could have just said "find a problem with some supermicro boards, no matter how much it costs to do so, and never repeat this conversation". They are complicated human-designed and -made artifacts; of course some problem exists. This is known in other situations as "parallel construction".