No. That's a sales line.
There are so many cases where paying more gets you worse treatment. Enterprise software pops to mind. So do luxury hotels. A $150 room will have free wifi, free breakfast, and no surprises. A $500 room will nickel and dime you on wifi, breakfast, parking, non-smoking, gym, a valet you didn't ask for, and they'll tack on a few fake tax fees for good measure. Because they can.
> This management company totally dropped the ball on making the actual units nice to live in, but that's another story...
No, it's the ending of the same story. We've all been there, it sucks, and you have my sympathies, but please don't believe or repeat the sales nonsense. It's a bunch of socially normalized lies designed to close a deal, nothing more.