Contaminant found in marijuana vaping products linked to deadly lung illnesses

Your first source link doesn't work.

so it's not a contaminant, but rather an additive? seems like the title should be changed potentially

That doesn't make much sense, adding a secondary compound doesn't increase the concetration rather by definition it decreases it but is sometimes necessary so that the final product has a high enough viscosity to wick in the e-cig/vaporizor.

The issue with raw cannabis concentrates is that they are most have a wax-like or near solid consistency so they won't work in a normal vape intended for nicotine juice. The normal carrier fluids, propelyne glycol and glycerol don't disolve concentrates very whell. So In legal states, official products add special blends of terpenes. It seems that these blends range from working well enough to meet state regulations to expensive jugs of 'stuff' sold online without much info.

However, there is a cheap, carrier fluid that can disolve concentrates and was used brefiely in regular, nicotine vapes but fell out of favor; PEG. PEG 400 along VG & PG can be used to create a carrier fluid for THC/concentrates.

Really it makes no sense that someone/illicit organization would go through the effort of obtaining large quantities of Vitamin E acetate when PEG 400, VG, & PG are much more common and easy to obtain. None of the press releases specify if Vitamin E acetate made up the majority of the fluid or just enough that it might be contaminated (one mentioned that small amounts are found in cannabis naturally).

The only scenario I can think of where someone would add Vitamin E acetate intentionally is if only a small amount combined with PG and/or VG was needed to stabilize the emulsion. It really depends on how much stock you put on 'maybe someone just ordered a bunch of oils off Amazon and tried them all and then started selling it across multiple states or shared the 'finding' online, etc'. I guess it's possible but it just seems like a lot more work than using already used, common ingredients.